UP Vargas Museum launches Kyunchome’s exhibition “All Living Things are Breathing Now”

The UP Vargas Museum, in collaboration with the Japan Foundation Manila, presents the exhibition “All Living Things are Breathing Now” by Japanese art duo Kyunchome.

Kyunchome brings their exhibition project to the UP Vargas Museum, comprising works they developed and created while living in coastal towns in the Visayas region in the Philippines. The beginnings of Kyunchome’s artistic practice are rooted in the aftermath of the 2011 earthquake, tsunami, and subsequent explosions at the nuclear plants in Fukushima, Japan. Since then, they have sought to understand the relationships between nature, human beings, and the non-human, charting a complex, enmeshed network of flourishing and survival. The ebb and flow of these forces shape the rhythms of life, or what remains of it, making them a fitting seismograph of life in the future.

Kyunchome writes that living in the Philippines has taught them new ways to reconnect and rebuild relationships with nature. The works in All Living Things are Breathing Now are at once poetic, playful, and contemplative, rendering the exhibition an introspection and a call: “We wish to see what cannot be seen. We wish to see what cannot be heard. All living things are breathing now. May the sound of that breath reach your ears.”

“All Living Things Are Breathing Now” will be on view at the 1/F Galleries of the UP Vargas Museum starting June 28, 2025. The exhibition received support from The Japan Foundation, Manila. Write vargasmuseum@up.edu.ph for details and related information. The Museum is located inside the University of the Philippines Diliman Campus and is open from Tuesday to Saturday, except on holidays, from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. For updates on events, exhibitions, and advisories, follow us on Facebook or Instagram at @upvargasmuseum.