An Argentinian contemporary artist of global repute, Leandro Erlich is perhaps best known in Japan as the creator of The Swimming Pool, a permanent installation at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa.

From massive installations to videos, Erlich’s works employ optical illusions and sound effects to shake up our notions of common sense. Though what the audience sees may at first glance seem familiar, on closer inspection it proves to be a surprising, unsettling deviation from the usual, in the form of, for example, a boat floating in the absence of water, or people sticking to the wall in various poses. Viewers begin to doubt whether what they see is actually reality, and notice just how much unconscious habit influences the way they look at things.

Covering the entire 25 years of Erlich’s career to date, “Leandro Erlich: Seeing and Believing” will be the largest-ever exhibition devoted to the work of this fascinating artist. Of the 44 works on display, 80 percent will be making their Japanese debut. Through Erlich’s works, we will realize by ridding of our inertia, habit, preconceived notions, and received wisdom that the visible is not all there is to reality, and experience for ourselves, with our newly unclouded vision, the advent of a new kind of world.

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