DAZAIFU.- Dazaifu Tenmangu is presenting Shine on Me, a solo exhibition by Susan Philipsz, as the twelfth installment of its art program, which has continued since 2006.

Philipsz has created sound installations worldwide, connecting people and places through sound in sites imbued with history and memory. Having visited Dazaifu twice since 2024, she was inspired by the shrine’s forest, which has nurtured faith and culture for over eleven centuries. She also drew inspiration from the shrine’s rituals and from the life and poetry of the enshrined deity, Sugawara Michizane, leading to the creation of new works.

Now permanently installed in the shrine’s forest, The Trees Listen uses the sound of eight conch shells. Echoing the imagery of the forest and the wind, it reflects Michizane’s state of mind during exile and evokes a quiet presence woven from sound and silence. Exhibited in the shrine museum, Shine on Me was inspired by early acoustic devices known as “sound mirrors.” Three parabolic mirrors, suspended as if floating, slowly rotate and resonate a compilation of tones based on the star festival at Dazaifu Tenmangu, creating a space where sound and light intertwine.

Through this exhibition, we hope you will encounter a world of sound resonating with the forest of Dazaifu and experience a journey beyond time and distance.

Susan Philipsz

Born in Glasgow in 1965, Susan Philipsz is currently based in Berlin. She has participated in numerous international exhibitions, including Skulptur Projekte Münster 07 (Münster, 2007), 16th Biennale of Sydney (Sydney, 2008), dOCUMENTA (13) (Kassel, 2012), and Manifesta 10 (St. Petersburg, 2014). In 2010, she won the Turner Prize for her work “Lowlands.”

Her major solo exhibitions include War Damaged Musical Instruments (Tate Britain, London, 2015), Night and Fog (Kunsthaus Bregenz, 2016), Lost In Space (Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, 2017), I See a Darkness (Tate Modern, London, 2018), Songs Sung in the First Person on Themes of Longing, Sympathy and Release (San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, 2022), and The Lower World (MUDAM, Luxembourg, 2025).
In Japan, she has participated in the Sapporo International Art Festival 2014 and PARASOPHIA: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture 2015. In 2020, her work was acquired by the Pola Museum of Art in Hakone, marking the first acquisition of her work by a Japanese museum.