Hunting Kyoto’s Ghosts Through Art — An Interview With Michael Hirschbichler

Michael Hirschbichler is a German-Austrian-Swiss artist and professor at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna. His art is situated at the crossroads of architecture, philosophy, and anthropology. Through an artistic investigation of spaces, he explores the relations of humans with their history, their stories, and their future.

In 2019, after visiting and living in numerous countries, he was an artist in residence at Villa Kamogawa for three months, a residency in Kyoto managed by the Goethe-Institut.

Read on to discover Michael’s unusual profile and his art, his studies and art about Kyoto’s ghosts, and what he retains from his stay in Kyoto.

Michael Hirschbichler’s Multi-Faceted Art

Art, for me, is a field where there is freedom to make experiments, and to combine disciplines that would otherwise hardly be allowed to.

You have studied architecture, philosophy, and anthropology. What has led you to the world of art?

Since my childhood days, art has always been the main driving force for me. As a child, I used to paint and make drawings. It is this artistic curiosity that has led me to explore various disciplines. Guided by questions and topics, I never cared too much…