The Nomadic Library

NOHGA HOTEL has engaged in several initiatives emphasizing our connection with art, including our artist-in-residence program. We're delighted to welcome back Ilana Halperin, who stayed with us as artist-in-residence in Autumn 2024, for a new exhibition in our Lobby Lounge and Meditation Room inspired by her previous residency in Kyoto. 

The exhibition centres on collaborative works by Ilana Halperin and Nishimura Shouten, together with photographs that approach mica as a landscape and framed works featuring engraved Scottish mica. 

Exhibition Information

EXHIBITION: The Nomadic Library 

DATES: October 30 - November 17, 2026 

VENUES AND OPENING HOURS: 
1F Lobby: Open for viewing throughout the day 
B1F Meditation Room: Exhibition hours 12:00-5:00 pm daily 
Please note that outside these hours, the Meditation Room will continue to operate as a reservation-only space for hotel guests. 

Exhibition Overview

The Nomadic Library features new sculptures and photographs in an exhibition tailor made for NOHGA HOTEL KIYOMIZU. 

Artist Ilana Halperin and Naoki Nishimura of Nishimura Shouten have collaborated on a new series of mineral sculptures combining Hikihaku, one of Kyoto's traditional Nishijin textile industries, with 600-million-year-old laser engraved Scottish 'books' of the mineral mica. 

During a studio visit to Nishimura Shouten in 2024, both artists recognised a shared interest in mica, which grows in sheets resembling the pages of a book. To make the work in this exhibition, the mica has travelled back and forth across the Earth between Japan and Scotland, finding its way into friends and colleagues' carry-on bags, to pass each shimmering book hand to hand. 

The Nomadic Library brings all these volumes back together, tracing the journey of this project, and our collaboration with NOHGA, since 2024. 

In the Lobby Lounge visitors will encounter a new suite of photographs which embrace the concept of 'borrowed landscape'. You can find the new mica library in the Meditation Room. 

The Lobby Lounge will also feature framed works made from Scottish mica engraved by Ilana Halperin.

Meet the Artists 

Sunday, November 8, 2026 | 3:00-5:00 pm | B1F Meditation Room 

Ilana Halperin will be present in the Meditation Room during this special gathering. Visitors are invited to view the works and meet the artist in a relaxed and informal setting. 
No reservation is required. Please feel free to stop by at any time during the gathering. 

 

Profile
-----------------------------

Ilana Halperin 

Ilana Halperin (born in New York, lives in Scotland) is an internationally renowned artist whose work explores the relationship between geology and daily life. A mid-career retrospective on her work opened at the Fruitmarket, Edinburgh in February 2026 and will tour to Bildmuseet, Sweden in 2027, accompanied by an in-depth monograph. Her work has featured in exhibitions worldwide including Hayward Touring; Artists Space, New York; Museum unter Tage, Bochum; Kunstmuseum Thun; Centre Pompidou Metz/Musée du Cristal Saint-Louis; Sharjah Biennial 8; and MAMAC, Nice. She shares her birthday with the Eldfell volcano in Iceland. 

Nishimura Shouten 

One of Kyoto's traditional industries Hikihaku has always poured down its brilliance onto Nishijin textile. We want to hand over that unrivaled beauty to the next generation manufacturing. The craftsmen who design the Hikihaku make the base papers with skillful use of gold and silver foils. After that, the craftsmen called "Kiriya" cut those base papers as thin as 0.3mm wide. The thin thread yarns are handed to "Oriya" who weaves them into Obi textiles. There are those craftsmen divide the work of the outstanding techniques behind Kyoto's traditional industries. 
Our ambition to complete our craftworks and delivering it to the people waiting for the goods of even higher quality, Nishimura Shouten wants to take over the craftsmanship which was preserved by the spirit of such craftsmen and deliver it to the outside world. We face a new blank Japanese paper everyday to capture the limelight in Japan and moreover, in the world.