In You Are What You Is, Kiyoshi Yamamoto makes art accessible, by creating a space for all kinds of people – a way of building a society.

The exhibition is filled with colourful, billowing textiles and a specially designed amphitheatre which puts children eye-to-eye with art. From the gallery, it extends out into the museum’s public corridors, disrupting the idea that art can only be experienced within the walls of an exhibition space.

Movement lies at the heart of You Are What You Is. Both in terms of the physical movement of the textile works, and also the mental movement that happens when thoughts and perspectives are changing. Yamamoto challenges children and adults alike to reflect over who they are, and how we experience the world we live in.

The exhibition is designed to encourage encounters – big and small, planned and unplanned, and through talking and playing together. Giving visitors space for action and freedom is a red thread through all of Yamamoto’s artistry. They are encouraging the museum to become even more open and accessible for everyone.

Kiyoshi Yamamoto is the fourth artist in Come Think With Us!, an exhibition series for youngsters which explores the role of participation, collaboration and relationships when children are the main focus.

About Kiyoshi Yamamoto:

Kiyoshi Yamamoto is a Japanese-Brazilian artist living and working in Bergen. They work with materials including textiles, silk-screen prints, printing, jewellery and performance. Their materials are often recycled, or large, colourful sheets of silk and cotton. These works often ask critical and challenging questions about societal structures, at both the social and political level.

For many years, they have been inspired and influenced by artists and textile designers such as Anni Albers and Frida Hansen – by their thoughts, ideas, art, lives and position in art history. Albers and Hansen began working with handmade textiles and were able to produce many large works based on the same visual, tactile style.

Yamamoto has an MA in Art from the Kunsthøgskolen in Bergen (2013) and has studied at London College of Fashion and Escala de Belas Arts in Rio de Janeiro. They have exhibited at various national and international venues, and created artworks for several public buildings. In 2025 Yamamoto is working on two commissions for the Oslo Courthouse and the Cissi Klein School in Trondheim.