In 2025, we visited the Museum of Contemporary Art (東京都現代美術館, MOT) in Tokyo to experience “seeing sound, hearing time,” (音を視る 時を聴く) the first comprehensive exhibition of Ryuichi Sakamoto’s installation works since his death in 2023. The Museum known for its spacious galleries, provided an ideal setting for this exhibition. MOT is located in Kiba Park 木場公園 in the Koto Ward 江東区. We took the metro and got off at Kiyosumi-Shirakawa Station 清澄白河駅, finding ourselves in a part of central Tokyo east of the Sumida River that we had never explored before.
A visionary composer and artist, Ryuichi Sakamoto (坂本龍一, 1952-2023) dedicated the latter part of his career—from the 2000s onward—to pioneering three-dimensional sound installations, collaborating with various artists to explore the intersection of music, space, and time.
Listen to one of his most recognizable track that has been played more than 100 million times on Spotify.
We visited the museum on the second anniversary of Sakamoto’s passing, and the significance of the date drew large crowds—the museum was packed with visitors and remained open late into the evening.
The exhibition ran from December 21, 2024, to March 30, 2025 and featured 12 installations. We photographed only those where photography is permitted. The installation that mesmerized me and many other visitors is #6 async-immersion tokyo by Ryuichi Sakamoto and Shiro Takatani 高谷 史郎.
Songs from Sakamoto’s 19th solo album async (2017) play from fourteen speakers, while images and videos processed by Takatani’s “Toposcan” technique are played on a 18-meter LED wall. In one segment, Sakamoto’s personal belongings from his New York studio (piano, books, instruments) were displayed and one side is progressively “smeared” into horizontal streaks, like the pixels have been stretched into bands of abstract colored lines. In other segments where the tracks “fullmoon” and “Life, Life” are played, the spoken words in various languages were also displayed within the images.
Using Takatani’s signature “Toposcan” process, these images are captured one vertical column of pixels at a time. In some segments, a fast-moving white line sweeps across the screen from end to end and back again with sound effects, mimicking the action of a flatbed scanner—an effect that becomes spectacular at such a large scale.
For segments that use videos, the motion is stopped at various time to form a composite image. During playback, the objects within the images appear to “emerge” from and “dissolve” into arrays of horizontal lines. The installation creates a unique visual experience that blurs the line between a still photograph and a moving video. Takatani’s visual interventions are not synchronised with Sakamoto’s music but evolve continuously, creating a parallel time frame within the artwork.
#9 Ryuichi Sakamoto Archive provides information and context underlying his work, the era in which he lived and his relationship with technology.
#10 LIFE-WELL TOKYO Fog sculpture #47662
On the Sunken Terrace of MOT is a collaboration between Sakamoto, Takatani and Fujiko Nakaya. Visitors are free to be immersed in the fog while they are visible to people at the exhibition inside the building. The fog, sound and light is supposed to weave a dreamlike symphony eliciting feelings of love, respect and awe for nature.
As the final installation, #11 Music Plays Images x Images Play Music (1996-7/2024), Sakamoto appears to play two songs (The Sheltering Sky and Paralibre) on the MIDI piano which is positioned precisely where his back appears as reflected on a large glass panel. The piano plays automatically along with the synchronized video, creating the surreal sensation of witnessing Sakamoto himself perform.
Watching Sakamoto on this almost-real stage is poignant and melancholic—a reminder of the immense loss of one of the world’s most venerated musical and artistic geniuses.
The museum has a shop that sells a small collection of postcards and books.
The exhibition serves as a fitting tribute to his enduring legacy. Despite the crowds, we really enjoyed it and appreciated the artistry behind the works.
The async : immersion installation along with two works by Carsten Nicolai (aka alva noto) accompanied by Sakamoto’s music (also seen here in Tokyo) will be installed at M+ Museum in Hong Kong from 14 Feb 2026 to 5 Jul 2026 – 坂本龍一 | 觀音・聽時.
I have previously posted about the track “Life, Life” from the album async here, which is accompanied by a great time-lapse video of New York. Check it out.
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