Exhibition

Pipilotti Rist: Supersubjektiv

Saturday, Feb 22–Sunday, Sep 14, 2025

Turner Gallery

In a dark room four people look at a large screen displaying a double image of an out-of-focus flower shot close-up.

Pipilotti Rist, Supersubjektiv, 2001. Installation view: Pipilotti Rist, Paço das Artes / MIS Museu da Imagem e do Som, Sao Paulo, Brazil, 2009. © Pipilotti Rist, courtesy of the artist, Hauser & Wirth, and Luhring Augustine / 2024 ProLitteris, Zurich / Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York.

Photo: Everton Baldin

This exhibition focuses on a single artwork by Pipilotti Rist (b. 1962, Grabs, Switzerland; lives and works in Zurich), the 2001 video installation Supersubjektiv.

Rist filmed the video footage featured in Supersubjektiv using a handheld digital camera during a month-long trip to Japan in December 2000. The hallucinatory video, presented in the Turner Gallery as a multichannel installation accompanied by sheepskin seating and an artist-made pillow, offers viewers a dream-like space for contemplation and curiosity. Paired with an ambient electronic soundtrack with lyrics sung in English and Japanese, the artwork examines nature, the built environment, and technology with wide-eyed wonder. Visitors are encouraged to relax and lose track of time as they take in Rist’s audiovisual meditation on longing for connection in our vast, globalized society.

Pipilotti Rist: Supersubjektiv is organized by Jason Foumberg, Daskalopoulos Collection Manager.

Transcripts

  • Mailing to JAPAN

    The screen is white

    My eyes are red and I know

    I shouldn’t cry

     

     

    Wires in the sky

    Streaming so bright

    Receiving the light you’re giving

    A place of mind

     

     

    Dark and blood bed

    Could be the ocean

    Is cooling the earth everyday

    Doubling the knowledge

     

     

    Mailing from Japan

    Without a screen

    My eyes are white and I know

    We will not cry

     

     

    Everywhere machines

    Prolonging your body

    Transmitting peace for mind

    The joy is in

     

     

    Pixelated screen

    On a molecule wave

    My eyes are noisy and I fly

    On your scream

     

     

    ⽇ 本 に メ ー ル す る

    画 ⾯ は ⽩ く

    わ た し の ⽬ は ⾚ い

    で も 泣 い て は い け な い

    Nihon-ni meeru suru

    Gamenwa shiroku

    Watashino mewa akai

    Demo naitewa ikenai

     

     

    空 の 電 線 は

    明 る く 輝 き

    あ な た の 光 を 受 け て

    そ れ は ⼼ の ⼀ 部

    Sora-no densen-wa

    Akaruku kagayaki

    Anata-no hikari-o ukete

    Sorewa kokorono ichibu

     

     

    暗 く ⾚ い ベ ッ ド は

    ⼤ き な 海 か も し れ な い

    ⽇ 々 ⼤ 地 を 冷 や し

    知 識 を 倍 に し て ゆ く

    Kuraku akai beddo-wa

    Ookina umikamo shirenai

    Hibi daichi-o hiyashi

    Chisiki-o bainishite yuku

     

     

    ⽇ 本 か ら メ ー ル す る

    画 ⾯ を 通 さ ず

    わ た し の ⽬ は ⽩ い

    も う 泣 か な い だ ろ う

    Nihonkara meeru suru

    Gamen-o toosazu (ni)

    Watashino mewa shiroi

    Moo nakanai – daroo

     

     

    Everywhere machines

    Prolonging your body

    Transmitting peace for mind

    The joy is in

     

     

    Pixelated screen

    On a molecule wave

    My eyes are noisy and I fly

    On your scream

  • Enviando correo a JAPÓN

    La pantalla está blanca

    Mis ojos rojos y sé que

    Yo no debería llorar

     

     

    Cables en el cielo

    Transmiten tan intensamente

    Reciben la luz que estás dando

    Un estado mental

     

     

    Oscuro y sangriento lecho

    Podría ser el océano

    Todos los días enfría la tierra

    Duplica el conocimiento

     

     

    Enviando correo desde Japón

    Sin una pantalla

    Mis ojos están en blanco y yo sé que

    Nosotros no deberíamos llorar

     

     

    Máquinas por todos lados

    Prolongan tu cuerpo

    Transmitiendo una paz mental

    La alegría ya llegó

     

     

    Pantalla pixelada

    En una onda molecular

    Mis ojos son ruidosos y yo vuelo

    Sobre tu grito

     

     

    ⽇ 本 に メ ー ル す る

    画 ⾯ は ⽩ く

    わ た し の ⽬ は ⾚ い

    で も 泣 い て は い け な い

    Nihon-ni meeru suru

    Gamenwa shiroku

    Watashino mewa akai

    Demo naitewa ikenai

     

     

    空 の 電 線 は

    明 る く 輝 き

    あ な た の 光 を 受 け て

    そ れ は ⼼ の ⼀ 部

    Sora-no densen-wa

    Akaruku kagayaki

    Anata-no hikari-o ukete

    Sorewa kokorono ichibu

     

     

    暗 く ⾚ い ベ ッ ド は

    ⼤ き な 海 か も し れ な い

    ⽇ 々 ⼤ 地 を 冷 や し

    知 識 を 倍 に し て ゆ く

    Kuraku akai beddo-wa

    Ookina umikamo shirenai

    Hibi daichi-o hiyashi

    Chisiki-o bainishite yuku

     

     

    ⽇ 本 か ら メ ー ル す る

    画 ⾯ を 通 さ ず

    わ た し の ⽬ は ⽩ い

    も う 泣 か な い だ ろ う

    Nihonkara meeru suru

    Gamen-o toosazu (ni)

    Watashino mewa shiroi

    Moo nakanai – daroo

     

     

    Máquinas por todos lados

    Prolongan tu cuerpo

    Transmitiendo una paz mental

    La alegría ya llegó

     

     

    Pantalla pixelada

    En una onda molecular

    Mis ojos son ruidosos y yo vuelo

    Sobre tu grito

Funding

Supersubjektiv is a part of the D.Daskalopoulos Collection Gift, a body of over 100 artworks jointly donated to the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum by MCA Trustee Dimitris Daskalopoulos in 2022.