We are pleased to present the following talk & workshop and film screening:
–Venue: Kyushu University, Ohashi Campus, Printing workshop room 207, 2F, 4-9-1 Shiobaru, Minamiku, Fukuoka, 815-8540
–Language: English/Japanese
–Target Audience: students and the general public
*If you are interested in attending this event, please register here. Max. 50 people
https://forms.office.com/r/C6jBuXhJJc
–Venue: Visual and Audio Lounge, Design Library, Ohashi Campus, Kyushu University
Gabi Schillig is a visual artist whose sculptural works, performances, and actions explore the intersections of art, architecture, and design. She is also a professor of spatial design and exhibition design at the University of the Arts in Berlin, Germany. In her talk and workshop topologies of softness & the sphere of the in-between: space, body, materiality, dialogue, relational ethics, Schillig will share insights into her practice, followed by a hands-on exercise inviting participants to actively engage with her methods. Alongside the event, the performance video Do You Think Something Soft Can Protect Something?, 2024 (18:11min) by Soh Souen and Gabi Schillig will be presented in the Visual & Audio Lounge from October 2 to 9.
Within her artistic practice, Gabi Schillig explores space as an extension of the living body. In her work, bodies, spaces, and actions are mutually dependent and intimately connected. For Schillig, space and body are never static or immobile but alive, ephemeral, and in constant transformation. It is shaped by individual bodily experiences as well as by collective (inter)actions that, in turn, contribute to forming societies and the world we inhabit.
Schillig’s work focuses on the creation of soft, ephemeral environments: textile shells, spatial structures, pliable skins, and at times, barely perceptible membranes that challenge rigid spatial boundaries. These soft architectures act as mediators, dissolving binaries of inside and outside, self and other. They invite tactile, embodied dialogues and open new ways of being in, perceiving, and transforming space. These qualities hold the potential for transformation and foster an openness toward an ethics of care, resilience, and coexistence.
Schillig´s practice unfolds across various media—through fragile materials, textiles, drawings, experimental photography, installations, performative activations, and video.
The performance video Do You Think Something Soft Can Protect Something? (柔らかなものは、何かを守ることができると思う? ) by Gabi Schillig and Soh Souen unifies two separate works by the artists: soft architectures by Gabi Schillig (2020-22) and Eggsercise/エグササイズ by Soh Souen (2022-today). The work was performed and recorded at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Berlin in June 2024.
Eggsercise/エグササイズ by Fukuoka-born artist Soh Souen was first performed at the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in December 2022.
Gabi Schillig studied architecture and completed postgraduate studies in Conceptual Art at the Städelschule – Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste Frankfurt am Main. From 2012 to 2018, she served as a professor at the Peter Behrens School of Arts in Düsseldorf. In 2018, she was appointed Professor of Spatial Design and Exhibition Design at the Berlin University of the Arts.
Since 2023, Schillig has been working regularly in Japan. She was artist-in-residence at Saiko Neon (Yamanashi) and short-term guest artist at ACAC – Aomori Contemporary Art Centre, where she explored Soft Matters – Spaces of Ephemerality. In 2023, she held her first solo exhibition in Japan at Gallery Kobo Chika in Tokyo and gave lectures at Tama Art University, Musashino Art University, Tamagawa University, and Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai).
In spring 2024, she was invited to participate in the ダイロッカン: dai6okkan residency art festival, initiated by 6okken in Yamanashi. With support of the Goethe Institut Tokyo, she returned to Japan in spring 2025 for residencies at Space Department (Nara) and Saruya Art Residency (Fujiyoshida), continuing her research on Topologies of Softness. On invitation of the Japan Foundation, she will explore the fluid boundaries between body and space together with Yui Kawaguchi at the Japanese Cultural Institute in Cologne, Germany in spring 2026.
Gabi has exhibited internationally and has been awarded numerous residencies and fellowships, including Akademie Schloss Solitude (Stuttgart), Van Alen Institute (New York City), Nordic Artists’ Centre (Dale, Norway), Khoj International Artists’ Association (New Delhi), Largo das Artes (Rio de Janeiro), Bauhaus Foundation (Dessau), and Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of Arts (Lithuania). Recent projects include bodies without organs* (with Lila Chitayat) for Liebling Haus, Tel Aviv (2020–21); Accento – the City in the Piano VI in collaboration with dancer and choreographer Yui Kawaguchi and jazz pianist Aki Takase at silent green, Berlin (2022); and Do You Think Something Soft Can Protect Something? with Soh Souen at Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin (2024).
Artist Talk & Workshop: Gabi Schillig: topologies of softness & the sphere of the in-between: space, body, materiality, dialogue, relational ethics.
–Date＆Time: Monday, October 6th, 2025, 18:30 -20:00–Venue: Kyushu University, Ohashi Campus, Printing workshop room 207, 2F, 4-9-1 Shiobaru, Minamiku, Fukuoka, 815-8540
–Language: English/Japanese
–Target Audience: students and the general public
*If you are interested in attending this event, please register here. Max. 50 people
https://forms.office.com/r/C6jBuXhJJc
Film Screening: Do You Think Something Soft Can Protect Something? By Soh Souen & Gabi Schillig, 2024 (18:11min)
–Date: October 2nd to 9th, 2025–Venue: Visual and Audio Lounge, Design Library, Ohashi Campus, Kyushu University
Gabi Schillig is a visual artist whose sculptural works, performances, and actions explore the intersections of art, architecture, and design. She is also a professor of spatial design and exhibition design at the University of the Arts in Berlin, Germany. In her talk and workshop topologies of softness & the sphere of the in-between: space, body, materiality, dialogue, relational ethics, Schillig will share insights into her practice, followed by a hands-on exercise inviting participants to actively engage with her methods. Alongside the event, the performance video Do You Think Something Soft Can Protect Something?, 2024 (18:11min) by Soh Souen and Gabi Schillig will be presented in the Visual & Audio Lounge from October 2 to 9.
Within her artistic practice, Gabi Schillig explores space as an extension of the living body. In her work, bodies, spaces, and actions are mutually dependent and intimately connected. For Schillig, space and body are never static or immobile but alive, ephemeral, and in constant transformation. It is shaped by individual bodily experiences as well as by collective (inter)actions that, in turn, contribute to forming societies and the world we inhabit.
Schillig’s work focuses on the creation of soft, ephemeral environments: textile shells, spatial structures, pliable skins, and at times, barely perceptible membranes that challenge rigid spatial boundaries. These soft architectures act as mediators, dissolving binaries of inside and outside, self and other. They invite tactile, embodied dialogues and open new ways of being in, perceiving, and transforming space. These qualities hold the potential for transformation and foster an openness toward an ethics of care, resilience, and coexistence.
Schillig´s practice unfolds across various media—through fragile materials, textiles, drawings, experimental photography, installations, performative activations, and video.
The performance video Do You Think Something Soft Can Protect Something? (柔らかなものは、何かを守ることができると思う? ) by Gabi Schillig and Soh Souen unifies two separate works by the artists: soft architectures by Gabi Schillig (2020-22) and Eggsercise/エグササイズ by Soh Souen (2022-today). The work was performed and recorded at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Berlin in June 2024.
Eggsercise/エグササイズ by Fukuoka-born artist Soh Souen was first performed at the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum in December 2022.
Gabi Schillig studied architecture and completed postgraduate studies in Conceptual Art at the Städelschule – Staatliche Hochschule für Bildende Künste Frankfurt am Main. From 2012 to 2018, she served as a professor at the Peter Behrens School of Arts in Düsseldorf. In 2018, she was appointed Professor of Spatial Design and Exhibition Design at the Berlin University of the Arts.
Since 2023, Schillig has been working regularly in Japan. She was artist-in-residence at Saiko Neon (Yamanashi) and short-term guest artist at ACAC – Aomori Contemporary Art Centre, where she explored Soft Matters – Spaces of Ephemerality. In 2023, she held her first solo exhibition in Japan at Gallery Kobo Chika in Tokyo and gave lectures at Tama Art University, Musashino Art University, Tamagawa University, and Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai).
In spring 2024, she was invited to participate in the ダイロッカン: dai6okkan residency art festival, initiated by 6okken in Yamanashi. With support of the Goethe Institut Tokyo, she returned to Japan in spring 2025 for residencies at Space Department (Nara) and Saruya Art Residency (Fujiyoshida), continuing her research on Topologies of Softness. On invitation of the Japan Foundation, she will explore the fluid boundaries between body and space together with Yui Kawaguchi at the Japanese Cultural Institute in Cologne, Germany in spring 2026.
Gabi has exhibited internationally and has been awarded numerous residencies and fellowships, including Akademie Schloss Solitude (Stuttgart), Van Alen Institute (New York City), Nordic Artists’ Centre (Dale, Norway), Khoj International Artists’ Association (New Delhi), Largo das Artes (Rio de Janeiro), Bauhaus Foundation (Dessau), and Nida Art Colony of Vilnius Academy of Arts (Lithuania). Recent projects include bodies without organs* (with Lila Chitayat) for Liebling Haus, Tel Aviv (2020–21); Accento – the City in the Piano VI in collaboration with dancer and choreographer Yui Kawaguchi and jazz pianist Aki Takase at silent green, Berlin (2022); and Do You Think Something Soft Can Protect Something? with Soh Souen at Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin (2024).