In official collaboration with Ghost in the Shell, Emi Kusano’s immersive solo exhibition explores how memory, surveillance, and identity become unstable in the age of generative AI. The show features CRT-based sculptural installations, AI-fabricated imaginary childhood, and philosophical interventions that draw inspiration from the iconic cyberpunk universe and Japanese philosophy.
“Ego in the Shell: Ghost Interrogation” transforms the gallery into a speculative environment where Emi Kusano uses a custom AI model trained on her own face to generate childhood memories that never happened. The project connects this fictional past with visions of accelerated futures, as prefigured by Ghost in the Shell. Central to the show are video works, a holographic self-interrogation, and a sculptural installation of stacked CRT screens, all of which make the ruptures between memory, fiction, and identity tangible. Visitors become part of the experience through cameras and projections, as the exhibition meditates on selfhood, impermanence, and algorithmic co-authorship.
“This project is about the fragility of memory and the instability of selfhood. By combining AI reconstructions with fragments of my past, I want to create a ritual where audiences confront both the permanence and impermanence of being. Ghost in the Shell has been one of the most influential works for me. In today’s world—where information overflows and algorithms accelerate division—I want audiences to reflect on what it truly means to remember, to feel, and to live in reality.”—Emi Kusano
Curated by Mika Bar-On Nesher and guest curator Yohsuke Takahashi.
Excerpt from the press release by Offline Gallery:
©1995 Shirow Masamune/KODANSHA・BANDAI VISUAL・MANGA ENTERTAINMENT. All Rights Reserved.
First released in 1995 as an animated feature film based on Shirow Masamune’s acclaimed manga, Ghost in the Shell is a seminal cyberpunk landmark work that has profoundly shaped global conversations about artificial intelligence, cybernetics, and the nature of human identity. Since then, it has expanded into multiple films, series, and remakes; Ghost in the Shell (2017), Stand Alone Complex (2004), and Netflix series Ghost in the Shell: SAC_2045 (2020).
Renowned for its philosophical explorations of consciousness, memory, and the blurring of human-machine boundaries, Ghost in the Shell continues to inspire artists, filmmakers, and technologists around the world, cementing its status as one of the most influential sci-fi series of all time.
This year marks the 30th anniversary of the release of Ghost in the Shell.
Emi Kusano (b. Tokyo, Japan) is a multidisciplinary new media artist, musician, and cultural futurist whose work explores the intersection of technology, identity, and contemporary Japanese culture. Her practice often merges techno-animism, AI, and cyberpunk aesthetics to examine the fragility of selfhood in the digital era.
Kusano’s work has been exhibited internationally at the Victoria & Albert Museum, the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art Kanazawa, and the FIT Museum, and she has collaborated with Christie’s x Gucci. Her notable projects, including Neural Fad (Bright Moments Tokyo, 2023), Techno Animism (Art Basel Tour, 2023), and Melancholic Magical Maiden (Art Blocks Curated, 2024), have achieved rapid sellouts, establishing her as a leading figure in the evolution of digital and AI-driven art. Kusano is the recipient of multiple awards, including the Lumen Prize Finalist, Meta Morph Award, and Currents Art Media Excellence Award, and was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum in 2025.
Yohsuke Takahashi (b. 1985, Tokyo) is a curator whose work explores the intersections of art, science, and society. He served as Senior Curator at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa (2014–2021) and Chief Curator at the Kadokawa Musashino Museum (2021–2023). Currently a faculty member at Kyoto University of the Arts and an Ethics Committee member for Nanorobotics at the ELSI Research Institute, he also curates independently in Japan and abroad. His notable projects include Ghost in the Cell (2015–2016, toured to Ars Electronica), which recreated Hatsune Miku’s beating heart cells using iPS technology and drew over 300,000 visitors; DeathLAB (2018–2019, with Columbia University); and Sotaiseiriron at the National Museum of Nature and Science, Tokyo (2018), which generated music from DNA. Recent exhibitions include Liminalism (Pellas Gallery, Boston, 2023). His 2018 show Frankenstein, dedicated to bio-art, was voted Tokyo’s best exhibition by over two million respondents (Tokyo Art Beat).
Mika Bar-On Nesher is a writer and curator based in New York, currently serving as the gallery director at Offline, where she leads exhibitions and public programming at the intersection of art and emerging technology.
Her curatorial practice is informed by a strong interest in digital art, narrative structures, and contemporary modes of exhibition-making. Prior to this role, she worked as a curator at SuperRare and a creative strategist at Botto, a decentralized autonomous artist project.
