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Shiro Takatani
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Shiro Takatani is a Japanese artist, born on October 15, 1963, in Nara. He currently lives and works in Kyoto. Co-founder and visual creator of the group Dumb Type since 1984, he also became artistic director of the group from 1995 and also started an active solo career in 1998.
Graduated from Kyoto City University of Arts, Shiro Takatani co-founded Dumb Type in 1984 with other students from different sections of the university, including Teiji Furuhashi, Toru Koyamada, Yukihiro Hozumi, Misako Yabuuchi and Hiromasa Tomari.
Dumb Type began touring around the world and got recognition with their multidisciplinary shows Pleasure Life (1988), and pH (1990–1995) and S/N (1992–1996)
After the death of the artistic director Teiji Furuhashi in 1995, some members left the company, while new ones joined it, as the composer Ryoji Ikeda. They continued working under Shiro Takatani's direction and created the performances OR (1997–1999), memorandum (1999–2003), Voyage (2002–2009), and the related installations OR (1997), Cascade (2000), Voyages (2002) and MEMORANDUM OR VOYAGE (2014).
Solo Projects
Alongside his activities within Dumb Type, Takatani has created a number of installations and performances under his own name.
Since his first installation frost frames, created at Canon Artlab in 1998, Takatani has been invited by museums, festivals and theatres worldwide.
Among others, he was commissioned by the Natural History Museum of Latvia in Riga to create two video installations: Ice Core and Snow Crystal / fiber optic type, for the group exhibition "Conversations with Snow and Ice", dedicated to Ukichiro Nakaya' scientific work on snow and ice, in 2005. This exhibition was one of the nominees for the Descartes Award for Excellence in the Explanation of Scientific phenomena in 2007)
The following year he was hosted in residence in Australia and presented the installation Chrono in Melbourne, as part of the Australia-Japan exchange program "Rapt! 20 Contemporary Artists from Japan", commissioned by the Japan Foundation.
He also joined the three-week British expedition "Cape Farewell" (a cultural response to climate change) in the Arctic, with scientists, writers, journalists and other artists from different countries. The related group exhibition was presented at the National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation in Tokyo, in 2008.
His more recent creations include the laser installation Silence (2012), commissioned by Radar, Loughborough University Arts, the fog installation Composition (2013) for the Sharjah Biennial in the United Arab Emirates and one of the first animation artworks for the 3D WATER MATRIX, inaugurated at the exhibition "Robotic Art" at the Cité des sciences et de l'industrie in Paris, in 2014.
Some of his installations are part of permanent collections of museums, for example Camera lucida (2004) and Toposcan / Ireland 2013 at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography and optical flat / fiber optic type (2000) at the National Museum of Art in Osaka.
In 2013, the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography presented Camera lucida, a dedicated exhibition with a wide range of the video and photographic artworks, he created both as solo artist and artistic director of Dumb Type
Another solo exhibition, held at the Kodama Gallery in Tokyo in 2014, featured his photographic series Topograph and frost frame Europe 1987.
Takatani also created and directed three theatre/dance performances: La chambre claire (2008), referring to Roland Barthes's essay la camera lucida, CHROMA (2012), inspired by Derek Jarman's Chroma: A Book of Color, with original music by Simon Fisher Turner, and ST/LL (2015) in which he is exploring how to consider the micromeasure of time and whether "art or science can ever truly express this hourglass world".
Collaboration Projects
Shiro Takatani has collaborated with musicians, choreographers and other artists from many disciplines.
In 1990, he participated with Akira Asada in the art project Stadsmarkeringen Groningen - Marking the City Boundaries, led by architect Daniel Libeskind for the 950th anniversary of the City of Groningen in the Netherlands.
In 1998, he was commissioned by Art Zoyd and the Lille National Orchestra to create video images for a piece of the first cycle of Dangerous Visions, a project combining symphonic music, new musical technologies and images.
At this period, composer Ryuichi Sakamoto noticed Takatani's work and asked him to undertake the visual direction of his opera LIFE, created in 1999. This marked the start of a fruitful collaboration between the two artists. They co-created later, in 2007, the installation LIFE - fluid, invisible, inaudible ... at Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM] (as well as an updated version in 2013), silent spins with sound designer Seigen Ono at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Tokyo in 2012. They also participated together in three performances directed by Moriaki Watanabe: Project Mallarmé I, II and III, combining text, music, theatre and dance, at the Kyoto Performing Arts Center - Shunjuza, from 2010 to 2012. During 2013–2014, they presented in Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM], on the occasion of its 10th anniversary, their performance LIFE WELL (with the participation of Noh actor Mansai Nomura), an installation with the same title and a new one: water state 1. Furthermore, Takatani was the visual director for Sakamoto's project Forest Symphony in 2013 and they collaborated again for a special version of LIFE-WELL, commissioned for the 20th anniversary of the Park Hyatt in Tokyo, in 2014.
Since his first collaboration with fog sculptor Fujiko Nakaya at the 1st International Biennial of Valencia in 2001, for the outdoor installation IRIS at the port of the city, Takatani co-signed two more large-scale installations with her: CLOUD FOREST (2010), inside and around the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM], and a fog sculpture in the Asuka Historical National Park in Nara.
Among other collaborations, he contributed in the exhibition Kichizaemon X (2012–2013), consisting of images screened on potters made by Raku Kichizaemon XV at Sagawa Art Museum, and he co-signed the 4K video installation Mars with Xavier Barral, for the international festival of photography Kyotographie at the Museum of Kyoto.
He also co-created several performances with Noh actor Mansai Nomura: Sanbaso / Eclipse and Boléro, both performed at the MOT - Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo), and Aoi no ue, The Double Shadow, directed by Watanabe Moriaki, at the Kyoto Performing Arts Center - Syunjuza.
Takatani's works were presented, among others, at the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin, Israel Museum in Jerusalem, Romaeuropa festival / MACRO in Rome, Royal Academy of Arts in London, Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon, GREC festival in Barcelona, Festival de Otoño in Madrid, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Lille 2004 - European Capital of Culture, NTT InterCommunication Center - ICC, Tokyo, Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM].
In 2015, Takatani received the 65th Prize of Fine Arts (Art media) from the Ministry of Education of Japan.
Installations
Toposcan / Baden-Württemberg (2016), commissioned by ZKM
MEMORANDUM OR VOYAGE - Dumb Type (2014), commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Liquid animation for the 3D WATER MATRIX (2014)
Toposcan (2013)
frost frame Europe 1987 (2013)
mirror type k2 (2013)
Composition (2013)
silence (2012)
photo-gene (2007)
Chrono (2006), commissioned by the Japan Foundation as part of Australia-Japan exchange program "Rapt! 20 Contemporary Artists from Japan"
Ice Core (2005), commissioned by the Natural History Museum of Latvia, Riga, as part of "Conversations with Snow and Ice" exhibition
Snow Crystal / fiber optic type (2005), commissioned by the Natural History Museum of Latvia, Riga, as part of "Conversations with Snow and Ice" exhibition
Camera lucida (2004), permanent collection of Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
optical flat / fiber optic type (2000), permanent collection of the National Museum of Art, Osaka
frost frames (1998)
Performances
ST/LL (2015), co-produced by Le Volcan - Scène Nationale du Havre and Biwako Hall - Center for the Performing Arts, Shiga
CHROMA - concert version (2013)
CHROMA (2012), co-produced by Biwako Hall - Center for the Performing Arts, Shiga
La chambre claire (2008), co-produced by Theater der Welt 2008
Collaboration works
PLANKTON - A Drifting World at the Origine of Life - installation with Christian Sardet and Ryuichi Sakamoto
Aoi no ue / L'ombre double (2014), visual direction for the performance directed by Moriaki Watanabe (Kyoto Performing Arts Center - Syunjuza)
LIFE-WELL Park Hyatt version (2014), fog and sound installation in collaboration with Ryuichi Sakamoto, at Park Hyatt Tokyo
First artwork for the 3D Water Matrix (2014), Merit CODAawards Winner 2015 - category "Institutional" in 2015
Mars (2014), installation in collaboration with Xavier Barral
Sanbaso / Eclipse (2014), with Mansai Nomura, commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Boléro (2014), with Mansai Nomura, commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
LIFE - fluid, invisible, inaudible ... (2013), ver.2, installation with Ryuichi Sakamoto, commissioned by Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]
water state 1 (2013), installation with Ryuichi Sakamoto
LIFE-WELL (2013), installation with Ryuichi Sakamoto
Forest Symphony (2013), visual direction for the project by Ryuichi Sakamoto
LIFE-WELL (2013), Nô and Kyôgen performance in collaboration with Ryuichi Sakamoto and Mansai Nomura
Mallarmé Project III (2012), visual direction for the performance by Moriaki Watanabe
silence spins (2012), installation with Ryuichi Sakamoto + Seigen Ono
collapsed (2012), installation with Ryuichi Sakamoto
Kichizaemon X (2012), installation with Raku Kichizaemon XV
Asuka Art Project (2011), lighting design for the fog installation by Fujiko Nakaya
Mallarmé Project II - Igitur (2011), visual direction for the performance by Moriaki Watanabe
Mallarmé Project (2010), visual direction for the performance by Moriaki Watanabe
CLOUD FOREST (2010), installation with Fujiko Nakaya, commissioned by Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]
This is how you will disappear, video direction for the performance by Gisèle Vienne at Festival d'Avignon
Keiichiro Shibuya playing piano solo, Shiro Takatani playing visuals (2009)
LIFE-fluid, invisible, inaudible ... (2007), installation with Ryuichi Sakamoto, commissioned by Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]
Live with Softpad (2007), special creation at Espace Sculfort in Maubeuge and Maison des Arts de Créteil
Garden Live with Ryuichi Sakamoto (2007) at Daitokuji-temple, Kyoto
Live with Rei Harakami (2006) at Liquidroom, Tokyo, Sonar Sound Tokyo
Live with Rei Harakami (2005) at Kyoto University Seibu-Kodo Hall and SONAR, Barcelona
Garden Live with Ryuichi Sakamoto (2005) at Honen-in, Kyoto
Live with Rei Harakami (2004) at Namura Art Meeting, Osaka and Sonar Sound Tokyo 2004
IRIS (2001), installation with Fujiko Nakaya, commissioned by the 1st Biennial of Valencia
LIFE (1999), visual direction for the opera by Ryuichi Sakamoto
Dangerous Visions (1998), visual creation for the project by Art Zoyd and Orchestre National de Lille
Solo exhibitions
2014
Topograph and frost frame Europe 1987, Kodama Gallery, Tokyo
2013
Camera Lucida, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography
"Musiques en Scène" / Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon
EXIT Festival / Maison des Arts de Créteil
VIA Festival / Le Manège - Théâtre du Manège, Maubeuge
1998
ARTLAB 4 / Spiral Garden, Tokyo
1990
"Stadsmarkering - Groningen / Marking the City Boundaries" (master plan Daniel Libeskind), Groningen
Public collections
optical flat / fiber optic type (2000), The National Museum of Art, Osaka
Toposcan – Ireland (2013), Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo
Camera Lucida (2004), Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo
Tours (performances)
2016
ST/LL, Napoli Teatro Festival 2016 - Teatro Politeama, Naples
CHROMA, New National Theatre Tokyo
ST/LL, Biwako Hall - Center for the Performing Arts, Shiga
2015
ST/LL, Les Halles de Schaerbeek, Brussels
ST/LL, Le Volcan - Scène Nationale du Havre, Le Havre
2014
CHROMA, SIAF - Sapporo International Art Festival
2013
CHROMA, Festival de Marseille
CHROMA concert version, SonarSound Tokyo
2012
CHROMA, Biwako Hall - Center for the Performing Arts, Shiga
La chambre claire, New National Theatre, Tokyo
2010
La Càmera Lúcida, GREC Festival, Barcelone
La chambre claire, Festival de Marseille
La chambre claire, Biwako Hall - Center for the Performing Arts, Shiga
2009
La Cámara Lúcida, Festival de Otoño, Madrid
2008
Die Helle Kammer, Theater der Welt, Halle
Discography
Teiji Furuhashi + Toru Yamanaka + Dumb Type - Works Vol. 01 (Triple CD, 2005). Foil Records FR-008/3
memorandum - Dumb Type (CD, 2000). CCI Recording CCI001
OR - Dumb Type (CD, 1998). Foil Records DTOR
S/N (CD, 1998). Les Disques du Soleil et de l'Acier C-DSA 54056
Remix - Dumb Type (mini CD, 1997). Foil Records FS001
teiji furuhashi / dumb type 1985–1994 (CD, 1996). Foil Records ML8852008
Hotel Pro Forma, Dumb Type, Diller-Scofidio - Monkey Business Class (CD, 1996). no label. Audio document of a collaboration between Hotel Pro Forma, Dumb Type, Elizabeth Diller, Ricardo Scofidio and Willie Flindt.
S/N - Dumb Type (CD, 1995). Newsic 30CE-N022
Videography
memorandum (DVD, 2009). Dumb Type's performance recorded in 2000. Commmons RZBM46410
OR (DVD, 2009). Dumb Type's performance recorded in 1998. Commmons RZBM46409
