Rie Tachikawa Interview Full -

By [Author Name] – Senior Editor, Contemporary Art Daily

In the sprawling, chaotic tapestry of contemporary Japanese art, few threads are as delicate—and as structurally vital—as that of Rie Tachikawa. While her peers often compete for attention through scale or shock value, Tachikawa has built a two-decade career on the opposite: subtraction. Her work, which spans installation, sound art, and what she calls "found object choreography," asks the viewer to listen to the space between words and look at the dust motes floating in a sunbeam.

Searching for a Rie Tachikawa interview full transcript is notoriously difficult. The artist rarely gives long-form interviews. She prefers her work to speak for itself. However, during her 2023 residency at the House of World Cultures in Berlin, Tachikawa sat for a rare, uninterrupted 90-minute conversation. Below is the complete, unedited transcript of that interview, providing unprecedented access to her creative process, her philosophy of "Ma" (間), and why she considers an empty room the most powerful canvas of all.

The full interview was recorded in a minimalist studio in Shibuya and streamed live on YouTube and Niconico. It was later uploaded as a 1‑hour, 32‑minute video titled “Rie Tachikawa – Full Interview (2026)” and has amassed over 2.3 million views within two weeks. The conversation was moderated by veteran anime journalist Kenji Nakamura, who is known for his thoughtful, research‑driven questioning style.

I: Let’s talk about process. Your installations often look... precarious. Broken. Dusty. Is that aesthetic intentional?

RT: I call it "controlled neglect." For six months before an exhibition, I stop cleaning my studio. I let dust accumulate. I let spiderwebs grow. Then, I photograph the dust patterns. Then, I vacuum everything clean. The photographs become the blueprint for where I place objects. rie tachikawa interview full

I: You vacuum away the real dust only to recreate it on the gallery wall?

RT: Exactly. Because real dust is random. Recreated dust is a memory of time passing. In my 2024 piece Hazy Protocol, I used a feather duster to trace the path of an imaginary housekeeper from 1932. The dust lines on the floor were not swept away—they were drawn back in. The audience walks on the dust. They become the housekeeper. They complete the loop.

I: That sounds maddeningly meticulous.

RT: (Smiles) Art is the discipline of lying beautifully. I lie about decay. I lie about emptiness. But the feeling you get when you stand in my room? That feeling is the truth.

For readers now searching for the Rie Tachikawa interview full text, beware of clickbait. Many sites promise the “uncut” version but deliver AI-summarized fluff. By [Author Name] – Senior Editor, Contemporary Art

Pro tip: Turn on subtitles (English) on YouTube for a smoother experience if you’re not fluent in Japanese.

When asked why she chose condemned buildings and forgotten lots for her signature thread installations, Tachikawa’s answer was immediate: “I don’t choose spaces. The spaces that are about to disappear choose me.”

In the full interview, she rejects the term "site-specific." Instead, she describes her work as "site-responsive." She notes that a building slated for demolition has a unique acoustic hollowness—a frequency of silence that isn’t found in a pristine gallery. Her famous red threads, she explains, were not about decoration but about "re-tensioning the skeleton of a room before it exhales for the last time."

I: This is for fans desperately searching for a "Rie Tachikawa interview full" video or PDF—you famously refuse to archive your work digitally. Why?

RT: Because a photograph of my work is the death of my work. My pieces change with the humidity, the time of day, the number of people in the room. A digital file is fixed. It is a corpse. I want my art to be a rumor. You hear about it from a friend. You walk three kilometers to a warehouse. You sign a waiver. You enter a room alone. That journey—the search—is part of the piece. The full interview was recorded in a minimalist

I: But doesn't that limit your audience?

RT: Yes. Good. In an age of infinite scrolling, the most radical act is to say: You had to be there. When people search for the "full interview" with me, they are looking for a shortcut. They want the answer inside a PDF. I refuse. This conversation exists. Your microphone is recording. But where will it live? On a server? (She touches the table). This table is real. My words are just vibrations.

I: That’s a hard line for a journalist.

RT: (Laughs) I know. I am sorry. Write it all down. But tell your readers: After you read this, close the laptop. Go sit in a room alone for ten minutes. Listen to the building sigh. That is my real interview.