Serpentine will present the first UK institutional exhibition of new and recent work by Justin Caguiat this autumn, bringing together heat-responsive paintings, bronze bells, sculpture, printmaking, sound and film at Serpentine South.
Opening on 8th October 2026, Change Ringing will see the Tokyo-born interdisciplinary artist extend his work beyond the conventional gallery interior, using the architecture and infrastructure of Serpentine South to frame, activate and even change the artworks on display.
Central to the exhibition will be a new site-specific installation of thermochromic paintings created with heat-responsive pigments on copper. Rudimentary heating pads and microcontrollers will be triggered by the sound of bells, warming the panels and causing their colours and forms to shift.
The works will also respond to the ambient temperature of the gallery, meaning what visitors see will change according to the surrounding environment. Alongside these system-based works, Caguiat will present monumental paintings evoking murals, frescoes and expansive landscapes.
Sound will play an equally important role. A series of bronze bells cast in the forms of flowers and plant seeds will be installed throughout the exhibition, accompanied by a score composed by Lily Pickett that draws on the logic of English change ringing.
Playing mechanically on a continuous loop, pistons will fire according to a sequential code to sound the bells. The architecture itself becomes part of the work, with the walls of Serpentine South gathering and amplifying their chimes to turn the gallery into what is effectively a giant listening instrument.
The idea draws connections with structures including the concrete acoustic mirrors once built around Britain’s coastline to detect approaching warships and Le Corbusier’s conception of architecture as an acoustic receiver.
Change Ringing develops ideas from Caguiat’s Zodiac Machine, presented by Fundación Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Madrid earlier this year across the Santa Ana y la Esperanza Church, Moratalaz Market and surrounding public spaces. Conceived as a two-part project between the Madrid institution and Serpentine, the work explores the meeting points between architecture, spirituality and the rhythms and infrastructure of everyday urban life.
The new body of work has also been influenced by Spanish architect Justo Gallego Martínez and his extraordinary Catedral de Justo, which he spent decades building largely by himself using recycled and found materials.
Bettina Korek, CEO, and Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director of Serpentine, said:
“We’re honoured to present Justin Caguiat’s first institutional exhibition in the UK, following its presentation by Fundación Sandretto Re Rebaudengo Madrid earlier this year. Caguiat’s cosmic and multifaceted practice gives rise to mystical, open-ended paintings that dissolve the boundaries between worlds. His work also explore time, and memory, moving between abstraction and figuration.”
Elsewhere, a seldom-used space at the back of Serpentine South will be transformed into a small cinema for the presentation of a 16mm film by Caguiat, further extending the exhibition across the building.
Change Ringing is curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist and Natalia Grabowska, with Alexa Chow.
Justin Caguiat: Change Ringing, 8th October 2026–10th January 2027, Serpentine South
About the artist
Born in Tokyo in 1989, Caguiat works across painting, sculpture, printmaking, sound and film. Recent solo exhibitions have taken place at CCA Wattis Institute of Contemporary Arts in San Francisco, Fundación Sandretto Re Rebaudengo in Madrid, Modern Art in London, Greene Naftali in New York and Taka Ishii Gallery in Tokyo.
His work is held in collections including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, Hammer Museum and Dallas Museum of Art.
