BERLIN.- “Ryuichi Sakamoto | seeing sound, hearing time” at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart is the first major retrospective of the composer and artist in Europe. Ryuichi Sakamoto is regarded as a pioneer of electronic and experimental music who repeatedly redefined the boundaries between sound, film, performance and visual art. From the 2000s onwards, he developed three-dimensional sound environments, often in collaboration with international artists such as Shiro Takatani and Carsten Nicolai, or filmmaker Apichatpong Weerasethakul. “Ryuichi Sakamoto | seeing sound, hearing time” presents seven works in five large-scale installations and opens during Berlin Art Week. The exhibition centres on the intersection of sound and art, which has been a hallmark of Hamburger Bahnhof since it was founded 30 years ago.

Earthquakes playing the piano or Tilda Swinton falling asleep: “Ryuichi Sakamoto | seeing sound, hearing time” at Hamburger Bahnhof shows how the renowned composer and artist regarded art as a form of listening – to other people, to technological developments, to history, and to the voices and sounds of nature. Across around 1,500 square metres, audiences encounter seven works in five large-scale installations, including 20-metre-long pools of water and an 18-metre-long video wall. The works on show are shaped by Sakamoto’s experience of illness, the confrontation with mortality and the effects of ecological crises. Throughout his life, Sakamoto was keen to explore how time is perceived and how music can alter our experience of time. His installations liberate sound from the fixed structures of a concert performance, creating more open situations where visitors can find their own rhythm. Presented in the museum’s expansive Rieckhallen, the exhibition brings the first major presentation of Sakamoto’s work in Europe to Berlin.

The exhibition opens with the installation “IS YOUR TIME” (2017/24, created in collaboration with Shiro Takatani). At its centre is an out-of-tune piano that was badly damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake and subsequent tsunami in 2011 and now stands in a pool of water. An automated piano-playing device is used to strike the keys based on converted seismological data from all over the world. Tremors occurring somewhere on the planet thus produce sounds.

In the next room, visitors enter another immersive world of sound and image with “async–immersion” (2023). On a monumental 18-metre-long LED wall, a stream of images composed by Shiro Takatani unfolds, based on photographs of objects in Sakamoto’s New York studio. Music from Sakamoto’s album “async” (2017) is played through a multi-channel speaker system, completely filling the space with sound. This is followed by another response to the album by filmmaker and artist Apichatpong Weerasethakul. “async–first light” (2017) includes images of people at film screenings, streetscapes, animals, people sleeping and brief encounters. The companion film “Durmiente” (2021) shows actor Tilda Swinton falling asleep. The scene was originally captured in connection with Weerasethakul’s feature film “Memoria”.

“TIME, TIME” (2024, created in collaboration with Shiro Takatani) is based on the theatre piece “TIME” (2021). Three large-scale projections show dancer Min Tanaka and shō player Mayumi Miyata on a stage of water. Water was a recurring motif in Sakamoto’s work – as the source of life, the bearer of memory and a symbol of constant change. “TIME, TIME” enables audiences to experience how Sakamoto conceived of music: not as a linear narrative, but as a field of different times.

The final room is dedicated to Berlin-based artist Carsten Nicolai and Sakamoto, who collaborated closely for more than 20 years. As a musician working under the name Alva Noto, and also as a visual artist, Nicolai shares Sakamoto’s interest in scientific phenomena, perception and the liminal areas between sound and image. Drawing inspiration from Jules Verne’s science-fiction novel “Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea”, Nicolai is currently working on an essayistic film installation, from which the videos “PHOSPHENES”, featuring abstract visual worlds, and “ENDO EXO”, with footage of specimens from the Berlin Natural History Museum, are presented. Each video employs one of two tracks from Sakamoto’s final studio album “12”, a sonic diary created between 2021 and 2022.

Ryuichi Sakamoto gained international recognition in Tokyo in the late 1970s as a co-founder of Yellow Magic Orchestra, a pioneering trio that combined electronic music, synthesiser technologies and digital production methods in previously unknown ways. Long before terms such as “techno” became commonplace, Sakamoto was experimenting with electronic instruments, computers and global communication platforms. At the same time, he was forging a multifaceted solo career, composing film scores for acclaimed directors such as Nagisa Oshima, Bernardo Bertolucci and Alejandro González Iñárritu, and winning numerous prestigious awards, including an Academy Award for Bernardo Bertolucci’s “The Last Emperor” (1987), two Golden Globes and a Grammy. From the early 2000s onwards, installations and exhibiting music as an art form became an increasingly important element of Sakamoto’s practice. Teaming up with long-time collaborators from the realms of visual art, film and media, he designed complex sound spaces that connect hearing and seeing with bodily perception. Collaboration was a fundamental principle of his work.

The exhibition opens during Berlin Art Week on Thursday, 10 September, from 7 to 10 pm, with an open-air bar and music in the museum garden. Admission to the opening is free.

On Friday, 11 September 2026, from 5 to 6 pm, a curators’ tour of the exhibition with Ingrid Buschmann and Sachiko Namba will take place. The tour will be held in English. Participation with a valid admission ticket. Registration: www.museumsdienst.berlin

During Berlin Art Week, the exhibition will remain open until 10 pm as part of the museum’s special opening hours on Friday, 11 September, and Saturday, 12 September.

The exhibition is part of the 30 Years Hamburger Bahnhof anniversary programme. In 2026, Hamburger Bahnhof celebrates its 30th anniversary with a programme that spans from the history of the site to the future: eight special exhibitions, a new collection presentation, as well as performances and concerts, carry the museum far into the urban space. The highlight is the anniversary weekend from 13–15 November, featuring an international conference on the future of contemporary collection museums, with the building open continuously for 30 hours.

Accompanying the exhibition is an edition of Hamburger Bahnhof’s catalogue series, published by Silvana Editoriale, Milan, with a curatorial introduction by Ingrid Buschmann, texts by Sachiko Namba and Yukiko Shikata, an anthology on Sakamoto’s life and work (1990–2025), and an annotated biography (€20).

The exhibition is curated by Ingrid Buschmann, Curator at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart, together with Sachiko Namba, Curator, Tokyo.

In close collaboration with The Estate of Ryuichi Sakamoto / KAB Inc and Dumb Type Office Ltd.