Roars Inside the Iceberg
“I.CEBERG” Project, TOKYO PROTOTYPE | 2026
As an initiative to reexamine the value of creation and the creative process, the first exhibition by WOW’s original project “I.CEBERG”, launched in 2025, was presented. Titled “Roars Inside the Iceberg,” it was showcased at the urban creative festival TOKYO PROTOTYPE, held at Toranomon Hills from January 29 (Thu) to 31 (Sat). The exhibition revealed the major works created by the five MAISON artists, along with the stories behind their production processes.
Roars Inside the Iceberg
01.

They do not exist in this world, yet they dwell within everyone's heart. Fear and longing, ugliness and tenderness—opposing emotions layered atop one another, still not even formed into words. We call these "monsters." I.CEBERG is an art collective that seeks these monsters through expression. Participating artists take part as "Maisons," each with distinct themes spanning physicality, form, and collage, exploring modes of expression that cross the boundaries between digital and analog, artificial and organic. We live in an era in which monsters are being erased. Under the agreeable banner of the "optimal solution," AI obscures the depth of being human—conflict, contradiction, and chance. Thus, the monsters that once lay deep within us—frightening, compelling, and at times endearing—quietly disappear. What I.CEBERG seeks to excavate from the iceberg are precisely these monsters. This exhibition brings together key works by five Maisons and the individual stories that emerged from their creative processes, forming an experience akin to peering into the interior of an iceberg. As visitors retrace each Maison's journey of confronting monsters, they may find themselves, before they realize it, facing the monsters lurking within their own hearts. This exhibition itself, where the visible and invisible, fear and curiosity overlap, outlines the very "narrative" that I.CEBERG seeks.


HIRONOBU SONE "BYPRODUCT"
02.

This work addresses robotic forms that emerge as byproducts of rule-based generative processes. These forms are not errors or exceptions; they arise as the natural outcomes of systems functioning exactly as designed. BYPRODUCT serves as a device for experiencing the chance occurrences and distortions that arise from within design and control, through the structural presence of the robot itself. ▶︎ Journal "BYPRODUCT"


TAKUMA SASAKI "Pulsating Light"
03.

Beneath visible beauty lies the pulse of life– enduring through drifting time while remaining connected to its environment and to others. This work uses tree roots once buried deep in the earth to express the vital energy that forms the foundation of life's beauty. The garment that envelopes the roots symbolizes the warm soil that nurtures life, while the protected roots emit a light reminiscent of a living heartbeat. That gentle glow eventually spreads outward, quietly illuminating the surrounding space. ▶︎ Journal "Pulsating Light"


TAKAFUMI MATSUNAGA "FRAME"
04.

Through the continued practice of walking the city and collaging its landscapes, abstract images began to surface naturally. This work attempts to give three-dimensional form to those images, sculpting them as structures that seem to seep out from photographs, in order to bring autonomous landscapes into being. Moving back and forth across the boundaries between figuration and abstraction, 2D and 3D, the work reveals the rich gradations that lie in between. ▶︎ Journal "FRAME"


TAKESHI FUNATSU "Bio Remix"
05.

An attempt to re-edit the patterns and markings found in living organisms as fashion. By exploring biological processes such as growth, differentiation, and repetition, the work dissects and expands a fetishistic fascination with natural phenomena through their transition into clothing. For this exhibition, the focus is on sea slugs (nudibranchs), marine organisms with primitive forms yet an extraordinary diversity of pattern variation. ▶︎ Journal "Bio Remix"


RYO KITABATAKE "Ambiguous Flowers"
06.

Images that exist within memory… gradually deteriorating and becoming embellished over time. The flowers that serve as motifs are formed by amplifying the noise and misreadings that arise during the process of digitizing real-world objects with a 3D scanner. The blurred images on the reverse side depict each flower in a distorted state, captured through a customized digital camera. These images are printed onto metal plates that slowly deteriorate over time. ▶︎ Journal "Ambiguous Flowers"


MERCHANDISE
07.

Prototypes of the main works—three‑dimensional forms created during the production process—were available for purchase at the venue, along with a magazine documenting the project’s activities. Fragments of Iceberg A total of 50 sculptural pieces were created as fragments of thought, emerging from the process of searching for stories hidden within an iceberg. While they do not yet carry a clearly defined meaning, these fragments strongly reflect the ideas of each of the five MAISON artists, and were used to share those stories with visitors. I.CEBERG MAGAZINE – ISSUE 01 (2nd edition) The first issue of the I.CEBERG magazine, created through a collaboration between the MAISON artists of I.CEBERG and the graphic design studio emuni inc. I.CEBERG MAGAZINE – ISSUE 02 The second issue of the I.CEBERG magazine, in which Science Writer Akihico Mori outlines the philosophy of I.CEBERG, and each MAISON expresses its ideas in its own words. In contrast to ISSUE 01, this edition focuses on shaping its concepts through language.


Credit
I.CEBERG Maison (Artist) : Hironobu Sone, Takuma Sasaki, Takafumi Matsunaga, Takeshi Funatsu, Ryo Kitabatake Producer : Ko Yamamoto Project Manager : Ren Ishikawa BYPRODUCT Maison : Hironobu Sone Programmer : Yuki Horikawa Project Manager / 3d Print Support : Ikumi Tabata Pulsating Light Maison : Takuma Sasaki Costume Designer : Koshiro Ebata Stylist : DAN (kelemmi) Lighting Plan & Design : Satoshi Yanagisawa (Triple Bottom Line) Lighting System & Mechanical Design : Yoshihiro Hirata (R2) Technical Support : Giichi Endo (NICHINAN GROUP) FRAME Maison : Takafumi Matsunaga Photo Print : FLATLABO Resin 3D Print : MAEDA SHELL SERVICE Styrofoam Cut & Fabrication : KIMURA FOUNDRY Paint : TAKAHAMA TOSOU Bio Remix Maison : Takeshi Funatsu Ambiguous Flowers Maison : Ryo Kitabatake Photo Print : FLATLABO I.CEBERG MAGAZINE Graphic & Editorial Design : Masashi Murakami, Tomoya Kawasaki (emuni) Exhibition Graphic Design : Masashi Murakami, Tomoya Kawasaki (emuni) Statement Writer : Akihico Mori Exhibition Design : Yoko Funahashi Set Construction : Nao Oritani Photographer / Videographer : Yuya Shiokawa Hardware & Lighting : Prism Transportation Support : BONDS




