At the heart of the future-focused Expo 2025 Osaka, where “Designing Future Society for our Lives” is the mantra, a revolutionary convergence of fashion, technology, and performance art is taking center stage. Global runway sensation and human rights activist Elton Ilirjani, known by his model name HANKO, has collaborated with renowned Japanese artist and fashion designer Naoko Tosa on a pioneering project dubbed the “Zero Gravity Box,” offering a glimpse into the future of human experience, identity, and style.
The “Zero Gravity Box,” a brainchild of Naoko Tosa and the Art Innovation Academia-Industry Joint Research Division at Kyoto University’s Disaster Prevention Research Institute, alongside TOPPAN and Shimadzu Corporation, is designed to simulate the weightless sensation of a mother’s womb. Through parabolic flights, participants are immersed in a unique auditory and sensory journey, evoking a profound feeling of rebirth and connection to universal origins.
Elton Ilirjani, a prominent figure in the fashion world with a global following of 12 million, is celebrated not only for his striking presence on runways from New York to Paris but also for his staunch advocacy for human rights and genderless modeling. His journey into high fashion began serendipitously in 2019, discovering New York’s 3NY boutique and its collection of unique Asian designers. His Instagram posts, showcasing these innovative designs, quickly led to collaborations with labels like BESFXXK and other South Korean designers, catapulting him onto international catwalks.
More than just a model, Elton is a performance artist, infusing his runway walks with a distinctive theatricality, influenced by trailblazers like Yoko Ono and Marina Abramović. He views the runway as a stage, using slow, deliberate movements to enthrall audiences and convey a story about inclusive modeling and universal beauty. This ethos made him the ideal collaborator for Tosa’s visionary project.
For the “Zero Gravity Box,” Elton entered the simulated environment dressed in an ethereal outfit designed by Naoko Tosa, his face painted white and adorned with blue crystals, evoking an otherworldly, alien presence (photos by Arun Nevader). His performance within the box aimed to deliver a message from the future about life on Earth.
“The whole experience was reminiscent of being inside your mother’s womb, when you are an embryo, hearing the heartbeat of your mother,” Elton shared, describing the profound impact of the experience. “This experience is more than art and fashion, it’s the future. Weightlessness is something people will experience in the future, since people will travel to other planets.”
The project resonates deeply with Elton’s core advocacy for genderless modeling. “There is no gender gap either, which is perfect with my project, the genderless modeling. There is no gap in genders, weightlessness, smart mirrors, wonderful sounds, embryo – it’s futuristic and together with the colors and how it was composed, it was giving micro-gravity or zero gravity,” he explained, emphasizing the boundless nature of the experience.
His personal connection to the project is equally poignant. “I’m proud to be part of this project. I could hear my heartbeat inside the box. I could remember being a fetus inside my mother. The future of life. It gave me a touch of the universe, it elevated me to another level,” Elton reflected. He also noted the serendipitous alignment of his artist name, HANKO (his mother’s name), with the Japanese word for “personal seal or stamp,” symbolizing a unique imprint on the future.
The “Zero Gravity Box” project, a powerful blend of cutting-edge technology and profound philosophical inquiry, aligns seamlessly with Expo 2025 Osaka’s commitment to exploring sustainable societies, emerging sciences, and evolving technologies. It positions fashion not merely as clothing, but as a vehicle for understanding future human identity, transcending traditional boundaries of gender and form.
“This is the fashion of the universe, it doesn’t have boundaries. It doesn’t have gender gaps,” Elton asserted, underscoring the revolutionary potential of such immersive, technological experiences. He also drew a parallel to the transformative power of artificial intelligence, suggesting these new tools will forever change human existence.
More than just an art installation, the “Zero Gravity Box” serves as a tangible prototype for future human experiences, intertwining advanced technology, performance art, and a profound exploration of identity. Elton Ilirjani’s groundbreaking collaboration with Naoko Tosa at Expo 2025 Osaka is a bold statement about humanity’s next frontier, where fashion meets the cosmos and gender becomes an irrelevant concept in the journey of rebirth.
The journey continues for Elton Ilirjani, who is slated to perform for the Emperor of Japan on February 26, 2026, as part of another collaborative fashion presentation and performance with Naoko Tosa, further cementing their vision of a truly inclusive and boundless future.
Photos by Arun Nevader.
