Japan’s media art giant Shiro Takatani brings Tangent to Shanghai for the first time, teaming up with avant-garde collective Dumb Type and the final album of Ryuichi Sakamoto. Expect a spellbinding mix of light, sound, and technology that turns the stage into a meditative space somewhere between reality and the surreal.

Tangent is a groundbreaking stage work led by Japanese media artist Shiro Takatani and his avant-garde collective Dumb Type. This performance marks Takatani’s Shanghai debut and brings together his three decades of cross-disciplinary work spanning installation art, theater, and modern dance.

At the heart of Tangent lies the concept of “liminal space”—the in-between zones where reality dissolves into the surreal. Using 18.4-channel surround sound, a 14-meter pendulum audio feedback system, computer-generated shadows, and trails of electric arc sparks, Takatani transforms the theater into a transitional perceptual space. Light and sound interact with the performers in real time, creating a rhythm that blurs boundaries and reshapes how audiences experience time and presence.

The soundtrack is drawn from 12, the last album by the late Ryuichi Sakamoto. His music, with its profound emotional depth, resonates deeply with the visuals, continuing the artistic dialogue he shared with Dumb Type over decades. The interplay of live sound feedback, projected light, and Sakamoto’s haunting compositions builds a sensory landscape that is as intimate as it is monumental.

Tangent is more than a performance; it is a meditative experiment that challenges perceptions of nature, technology, and humanity. After acclaimed premieres at the Venice Biennale and Kyoto’s ROHM Theatre, the show arrives in Shanghai in a specially upgraded Asia-first version as part of ARTRA 2025, a new brand under the China Shanghai International Arts Festival.

As described by choreographer Wayne McGregor, it is “rooted in the relationship between art, science, and technology, and beautifully transcends the line between visual art and performance.” Tangent invites audiences to step into a space where the unseen becomes visible and sound becomes touch—an unforgettable experience at the intersection of art and innovation.