Manga aesthetics meet philosophy, technology, and spirituality in an exhibition that redefines art between past and future.
In autumn 2025, artist Kongkee transforms the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa into a vibrant stage of light, sound, and motion. Electronic Heart Beat blends manga, animation, historical myths, and artificial intelligence into a multi-layered artistic vision that extends beyond the present into imagined futures.
Since opening in 2004, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa has become one of Japan’s most dynamic cultural institutions. Designed by the acclaimed architecture studio SANAA, its circular glass building symbolizes transparency and openness. Inside, over 4,100 works reflect the museum’s guiding principles: to collect art primarily created since the 1980s, to spotlight works that propose new values, and to maintain strong ties both to local culture and international artistic currents.
Directed by Kongkee, Tsui Ka-hei and Lee Kwok-wai
Image courtesy of the artist.
The museum is known not only for its collection, which includes works by Olafur Eliasson, Leandro Erlich, and James Turrell, but also for its commitment to presenting groundbreaking exhibitions that explore the relationship between art, society, and the future.
Kongkee: Electronic Heart Beat
From October 18, 2025 to March 22, 2026, the museum presents Kongkee: Electronic Heart Beat. Born in Malaysia and based between Hong Kong and London, Kongkee (Kong Khong-chang) is an artist whose practice crosses genres – from comics and animation to painting, installation, and performance. His work weaves together past, present, and future, drawing on East Asian classical literature, philosophy, and digital aesthetics.
Mixed media on galvanized iron board
H107×W107×D2.5cm, Private Collection
© Kongkee
Image courtesy of the artist and gdm.
One of his signature projects, Dragon’s Delusion, reimagines legendary figures such as Emperor Qin Shi Huang, the poet Qu Yuan, and King Huai of Chu, situating them in a cyberpunk dystopia that asks profound questions about free will and the nature of human existence. In his latest series Future Jataka, Kongkee reinterprets the Buddhist Jataka Tales, envisioning a world where artificial intelligence might one day achieve a kind of enlightenment. visitkanazawa.jp
Video
5min. 5sec.
Collection of the artist
© Kongkee
Image courtesy of the artist.
A Pulse of Light, Sound, and Story
What makes Electronic Heart Beat so compelling is its sensory richness. Through immersive installations, Kongkee merges manga-inspired visual culture with digital projections, soundscapes, and performative elements. The influence of Japanese animation is unmistakable, yet it is never superficial: manga and anime become cultural languages, vehicles for storytelling that address collective memory, myth, and futurism.
The exhibition stages a dialogue between ancient narratives and future possibilities, between spiritual reflection and technological speculation. It resonates deeply with today’s cultural moment, where questions of identity, technology, and transcendence are increasingly intertwined.
Why It Matters
Kongkee: Electronic Heart Beat epitomizes what the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa does best: presenting artists who cross boundaries and create spaces for imagination and reflection. By combining philosophy, spirituality, and digital aesthetics, Kongkee offers more than visual spectacle – he invites visitors to reconsider the very conditions of human existence in the age of AI.
For visitors, the exhibition promises not just to be seen, but to be felt: a sensory journey through light and shadow, sound and silence, tradition and innovation.
