Rome residents can contribute to installation by Japanese artist

The Japanese Cultural Institute in Rome is collecting old keys to be used by Japanese artist Chiharu Shiota in the Japan pavilion at the 56th Venice Biennale in 2015.

The disused keys will form part of Shiota's installation The Key in the Hand which will comprise two boats, red yarn and – hopefully – 50,000 keys.

The Berlin-based artist has appealed to people to donate keys that they no longer need for the installation which will be curated by Hitoshi Nakano. Shiota says that keys are “familiar and very valuable things that protect important people and spaces in our lives. They also inspire us to open the door to unknown worlds.”

Central to the artist's installation is the concept of multiple recollections and overlapping memories that have accumulated over a long period of daily use.

Shiota's work is currently on show in Rome at The Pink Gaze exhibition of four contemporary Japanese women artists at the Museo Nazionale d'Arte Orientale.

Keys may be left for Shiota at the Japanese Cultural Institute, for the attention of MC Gasperini, between now and 31 October. The keys can be any shape, colour and condition but locks are not required.

The institute says that the keys donated must no longer be needed as they will not be returned.

For more information see the Japanese Cultural Institute's website.

Istituto Giapponese di Cultura, Via Antonio Gramsci 74, tel. 063224754.