Megan Volpe: Hikikomori

Hikikomori is an installation by Megan Volpe that explores social withdrawal, mental health and the role of screens in shaping our perception of reality. Drawing on the artist’s personal experience of progressive isolation over four years, the project examines how digital environments can become both a source of comfort and a substitute for direct contact with the outside world. The title refers to the Japanese term hikikomori, meaning to withdraw or stay apart, used to describe forms of prolonged social withdrawal.

Rather than illustrating a clinical condition, the installation reflects on a broader contemporary experience: the paradox of constant digital connectivity alongside an increasing distance from the surrounding world. The exhibition space takes on a dreamlike quality, suspended between physical reality and an inner landscape. A network of white tubes extends throughout the architecture, winding through the room in organic, labyrinthine forms that recall the branching structures of the brain. Visitors are invited to enter this environment, where the physical space becomes a representation of the mind and the boundaries between protection, isolation and connection begin to blur.