MtK Contemporary Art is pleased to announce the special exhibition《ATM》by Yuichiro Tamura at Onikai MtK Contemporary Art from October 11^th, 2025.

《ATM》was presented as the centerpiece of the solo exhibition ATM, held at the Art Tower Mito from November 2024 to January 2025. Designed with reference to the artist’s own bodily scale, such as the positions of the heart and navel, the dimensions of the work are said to correspond to what Tamura considers the size of a “coffin.”

The title derives from “Automated Teller Machine,” yet here the word “Teller” is reinterpreted as “a speaker” or “a narrator.” When any three-letter code is entered, a generative AI, drawing on the vast archive of texts Tamura has written in the process of her artistic practice produces a short story composed of three sentences and prints it on a receipt. Depending on how one reads it, the story may even sound like a piece of advice from a fortune teller.

Reflecting the evolution of Tamura’s own practice, the work is also built upon OpenAI’s models and continues to transform alongside technological developments.

Presented concurrently with the solo exhibition at Art Tower Mito, ATM was also shown at ACK (Art Collaboration Kyoto), where it demonstrated its capacity to generate narratives independent of any fixed physical location, much like an actual cash machine. A year after that experiment, the work returns once again for exhibition.

Yuichiro Tamura

Born in Toyama, 1977. Currently resides in Kyoto.

Using found images and objects, the artist creates various works including photographs, videos, installation works, performances, and productions with multiple layers of real and made-up narratives, from historical to everyday, common themes. Those works lay out new perspectives on the original history or memories, ask viewers to question and rethink on matters in contemporary manners.

The recent exhibitions include the solo shows After IAN Trip (Onikai MtK Contemporary Art, 2024), Milky Mountain (Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Zealand, 2019), Hell Scream (Kyoto City University of Arts Art Gallery @KCUA, Kyoto, 2018) and G (Yuka Tsuruno Gallery, Tokyo, 2018), and group shows Wunderkammer to Come: From the Uncompleted, a Beginning (Toyota Municipal Museum of Art, 2024), Asian Art Biennial (National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, 2019), Image Narratives: Literature in Japan (National Art Center, Tokyo, 2019), The Seven Lamps of the Art Museum (Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima, 2019), Where Am I?: The Art and Design of Signage (Toyama Prefectural Museum of Art & Design, Toyama, 2019), Roppongi Crossing 2019: Connexions (Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, 2019), Busan Biennale (Museum of Contemporary Art Busan, Korea, 2018), Nissan Art Award 2017 (BankART Studio NYK, Yokohama, 2017), 2 or 3 Tigers (Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, 2017) and BODY/PLAY/POLITICS (Yokohama Museum of Art, 2016).