Takahiro Suzuki has been running his IKIRO project for ten years now: day after day, he writes the Japanese word “Ikiro”, a rough equivalent to “live!”, in various contexts ranging from museums to public space. Takahiro Suzuki has already travelled to numerous countries with this project, writing his “IKIRO” in places as diverse as temples in Nepal and galleries in New York. The imperative word “live!” is both a challenge to the reader and a form of personal summons for the artist, which he passes on to his audience. Takahiro Suzuki has now declared the “IKIRO” project his life’s project, and it will continue until his death.

Site-specific characteristics also flow into Suzuki’s “IKIRO” performances and installations. For the presentation in Studio 1, for example, he has produced a large-format “IKIRO” painting using dark soil that he dug himself from the park area in front of the Bethanien building. At the same time, he combines the changing history of his exhibition location at Berlin’s Mariannenplatz with a visual documentation of his life’s project “IKIRO” – a combination of opposites and parallel realities that become one during the daily practice of the exhibition: the artist will write the word “IKIRO” on one sheet of rice paper after another, using brush and Indian ink; in this way, his installation will continue to grow with every day of the exhibition.