MoN Takanawa: The Museum of Narratives in Minato City, Tokyo will hold Feel the Sound, an immersive sound exhibition co-produced with the UK cultural institution Barbican Centre. Tickets are now on sale, and some of the participating artists and exhibits have been announced.
The exhibition will feature works that debuted at the Barbican Centre in London, existing works given new arrangements, and three new works added specially for the Tokyo presentation.
The exhibition drew many visitors at the Barbican Centre, and this is its first showing in Japan. Through a wide range of installations that blend sound, vibration, music and technology, visitors can experience sound not only through the ears but with the whole body.
"The Sound Reaches Your Body Before Your Ears"
Is sound something we feel only with our ears? There is the moment a vibration passes through the body, the sense of an entire space resonating, and the time spent experiencing sound together with someone else. Feel the Sound is a hands-on exhibition that treats sound as something to "feel" as well as to "hear." Through new sound experiences created by artists and creators from Japan and abroad, visitors explore the relationship between sound and the body and are invited to question the possibilities of "listening" from the ground up.
Comment from Curator Luke Kemp
"Sound is essential to how people experience the world. Feel the Sound creates an opportunity to look back on that experience and see it anew. Through 12 distinctive spaces, visitors can explore sound not only as something perceived by hearing but as something they can see, feel and touch. By thinking about how each of us relates to sound and music, you will realize that sound can nurture community, connect people, and prompt us to listen to the world in new ways.
Feel the Sound came about through a special collaboration with MoN Takanawa, which took part as a co-producer from the earliest stage of the concept. We are very much looking forward to presenting the exhibition, with its new developments, in Tokyo for the first time and having visitors experience it."
Exhibition Highlights
- An immersive sound exhibition that lets you feel sound with your whole body: Through installations that combine sound, vibration, light and spatial design, visitors can touch the works, walk through the spaces and share the experience with others, discovering a new relationship with sound. It is an immersive exhibition for experiencing sound, not just listening to it.
- A wide range of works by artists from Japan and abroad: Participating artists work in fields including music, sound art, media art and technology. Each reinterprets "sound" from a distinct perspective and engages visitors' senses and bodies through a variety of works.
- First showing in Japan, co-produced with the Barbican Centre: Based on the exhibition that drew a strong response in London, the presentation has been reorganized for Tokyo with new elements added.
Featured Works
Sensing Streams-invisible, inaudible: focused edition (2025), Ryuichi Sakamoto + Daito Manabe
©Photo: TOMITA Ryohei
Photo Courtesy: NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC]
This collaboration between Ryuichi Sakamoto and Daito Manabe is an installation that focuses on the electromagnetic waves used by the technologies underpinning modern society. Electromagnetic waves used by familiar devices such as smartphones are always around us, yet humans cannot directly perceive most of them. The work converts data taken from the surrounding environment into sound and light, letting visitors experience a flow of information they normally cannot perceive.
Reflections of Being (2025), Max Cooper
Feel the Sound at the Barbican Installation view 22 May – 31 August, 2025
©Thomas Adank/Barbican Centre
An immersive installation of music, video and text built on anonymous responses to the question "What do you feel you cannot express in everyday life?" It invites viewers to ask "What does it mean to exist?" while engaging with other people's thoughts and feelings.
Resonance Continuum (2025), Elsewhere in India
Feel the Sound at the Barbican Installation view 22 May – 31 August, 2025
©Thomas Adank/Barbican Centre
Crossing India's regional musical cultures, crafts, craftsmanship and digital technology, this installation explores "resonance" as a force that links people with people, people with places, and culture with memory. Visitors can experience the connections among diverse cultures and memories handed down through sound.
Ticket Information
Tickets can be purchased on the MoN Takanawa official website and on ArtSticker.
| General | U25 (under 25) | Elementary, junior high and high school students | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Advance | ¥2,300 | ¥900 | ¥350 |
| Regular | ¥2,500 | ¥1,100 | ¥550 |
- MoN Takanawa official website: https://montakanawa.jp/programs/feelthesound2026/
- ArtSticker: https://artsticker.app/events/166916
Exhibition Details
- Exhibition: Feel the Sound
- Dates: November 20 (Friday), 2026 to March 22 (Monday, public holiday), 2027
- Venue: MoN Takanawa: The Museum of Narratives, Box1500 (5F), inside TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITY
- Address: 3-16-1 Mita, Minato City, Tokyo
- Access: Directly connected to Takanawa Gateway Station (JR Yamanote Line and Keihin-Tohoku Line), 6-minute walk from the north ticket gate; 3-minute walk from Exit A4 of Sengakuji Station (Toei Asakusa Line)
- Organizer: MoN Takanawa: The Museum of Narratives
- Planning and production: Barbican Centre
- Co-production: MoN Takanawa: The Museum of Narratives
- In cooperation with: British Council
- Supported by: J-WAVE 81.3FM
- Project supervision: David Watts inc.
- Program details: https://montakanawa.jp/programs/feelthesound2026/
- Official Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/montakanawa/ (@montakanawa)
Participating Artists
Miyu Hosoi, Evan Ifekoya, ヤン・ヴェルナー, Daito Manabe, Evelyn Glennie, MUTEK (Sarah MacKenzie), Nicole L'Huillier, Elsewhere in India, Alejandra Cárdenas, Ei Wada, Yuri Suzuki, Intelligent Instruments Lab, Holly Herndon, イーラ&モノム, Trans Voices, Domestic Data Streamers, Temporary Pleasure, Nexus Studios, Kinda Studios, Raymond Antrobus, Tatiana Heuman, Giacomo Lepri, Nicola Privato, Max Cooper, Ryuichi Sakamoto, 鮎川ぱて, 穴井佑樹, Pixie Dust Technologies, イッチー＆ハイオカ, Harry Yeff (REEPS100) & チュン・バオ, and others
