My first grandchild, who is now one and a half years old, is always wanting to take something home with him wherever I take him somewhere, so I am having a bit of trouble with him. Therefore, I think that JAXA, NASA, and many other people involved in space are very, very lucky to have gone along with such an outrageous wish to “take home space” in all seriousness. And Mr. Matsui, who has taken such selfishness and turned it into a work of art and is showing it around to all sorts of people, is also quite amazing. And from the children who pick up his work Message in a Bottle and cheer, to the adults who stare deep in thought, everyone thinks it’s fascinating. I was one of the people who had the opportunity to pick up a copy of the book, and I felt as if I was holding the tail of the universe in my hand.

“It’s a sense of Wonder,” Matsui says. Matsui lets us experience this not only through the fascinating shapes he creates, but also through the subtle “presence” of the inside and outside, here and there. Those of us who have held the bottled “space” in our hands must have sensed a special “presence” being created between us and the “space” that we usually just look up at.

The repeated cries of S.O.S. in Sting’s “Message in a Bottle” are out of place in my grandchildren’s daily routine, but I can assure you this much. The upcoming Shiro Matsui exhibition will also be a “Super-Outstanding S.O.S.,” or “Super-Outstanding Show.”
Enjoy this intellectual adventure filled with a “sense of wonder.”
―Takashi Murata, Director, Miyanomori International Museum of Art, Sapporo（MIMAS）