Shiro Takatani

is a Japanese artist. 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.

Biography

Dumb Type 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). A new performance 2020 was staged by Takatani and the new members of Dumb Type without audience in Kyoto during COVID-19 pandemic and in 2022 Dumb Type represented Japan at the Venice Biennale.

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. Other collaborations with Sakamoto include the installations PLANKTON - A Drifting World at the Origin of Life (2016), based on photographs by French biologist Christian Sardet, async (2017) and the theatrical performance TIME (2021). This "wordless opera" , featuring dancer and actor Min Tanaka and shô player Mayumi Miyata was inspired by the first story from Soseki Natsume’s collection of short stories Ten Nights of Dreams.

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 GREC festival in Barcelona, the Martin-Gropius-Bau in Berlin, Kwai Tsing Theatre in Hong Kong, Israel Museum in Jerusalem, ZKM, Lille 2004 - European Capital of Culture, Royal Academy of Arts and Tate in London, Musée d'art contemporain de Lyon, Festival de Otoño in Madrid, Centre Pompidou, Fondation Cartier pour l’art contemporain in Paris, Romaeuropa festival / MACRO in Rome, Power Station of Art, Shanghai, Sharjah Art Foundation, Singapore International Festival of Arts, National Theater & Concert Hall in Taipei, Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, NTT InterCommunication Center - ICC and New National Theatre Tokyo, Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM].

In 2015, Takatani received the 65th Prize of Fine Arts (Media Art) from the Ministry of Education of Japan and the Kyoto Prefecture Cultural Award in 2019.

Works

Installations Toposcan/Tokyo (2020), commissioned by Tokyo Photographic Art Museum Black to Light (2019), in-store installation, Hermès Paris Toposcan / Baden-Württemberg (2016), commissioned by ZKM Karlsruhe MEMORANDUM OR VOYAGE - Dumb Type (2014), commissioned by the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo ST\LL, a liquid animation for the 3D WATER MATRIX (2014) Toposcan/Morocco (2014) Toposcan/Ireland (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, France, Biwako Hall - Center for the Performing Arts, Shiga, Japan, and Fondazione Campania dei Festival – Napoli Teatro Festival Italia 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 Ryuichi Sakamoto + Shiro Takatani: TIME, theatrical performance (2021) Fujiko Nakaya + Shiro Takatani: Chronotope in the City of Fog, fog installation (2020) Ryuichi Sakamoto + Shiro Takatani: Fragments, visual concert launching Singapore International Festival of Arts (2019) Fujiko Nakaya: Fog x FLO, fog installation (2018) Ryuichi Sakamoto: dis.play, visual concert (2018) Glenn Gould Gathering (2017) Ryuichi Sakamoto: IS YOUR TIME exhibition (2017) Ryuichi Sakamoto: Artists Studio, visual concert (2017) Ryuichi Sakamoto: async exhibition (2017) London Fog #03779, fog installation with Fujiko Nakaya + Ryuichi Sakamoto + Min Tanaka at the Tate Modern London (2017) Sayuri Yoshinaga + Ryuichi Sakamoto: For Peace, charity concert (2016) Toposcan/Mozuyaguro - Rokyo with Raku Kichizaemon XV + Chojiro (2016) Le Soulier de satin by Paul Claudel, directed by Moriaki Watanabe (2016) PLANKTON - A Drifting World at the Origine of Life: installation with Christian Sardet and Ryuichi Sakamoto (2016) 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 ST\LL, 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

Exhibitions and Performances

Solo exhibitions 2020 BLACK TO LIGHT, in-store installation, Ginza Maison Hermès, Tokyo 2019-2020 Dumb Type : ACTIONS+REFLEXIONS, MOT - Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo BLACK TO LIGHT, in-store installation, Hermes Paris Topograph/Toposcan, Kodama Gallery Tokyo 2018 Dumb Type : ACTIONS+REFLEXIONS, Centre Pompidou-Metz 2016 Toposcan/Baden-Württemberg (2016), permanent collection, ZKM Karlsruhe 2014 Topograph and frost frame Europe 1987, Kodama Gallery, Tokyo 2013 Camera Lucida, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum LIFE-WELL installation, Noda-jinja shrine (outdoor), Yamaguchi 2007 photo-gene, Kodama Gallery, Tokyo 2004 Camera Lucida - experimental studies, Kodama Gallery, Osaka 2001 frost frames, Chapelle des Carmélites, Toulouse 2000 frost frames, Kyoto Art Center, Kyoto optical flat / fiber optic type, Kodama Gallery, Osaka

Group exhibitions 2023 DIMENSIONS - Digital Art Since 1859 / Pittlerwerke, Leipzig, organised by Stiftung für Kunst und Kultur e.V., curated by Richard Castelli with Dan Xu and Clara Blume. 2021 Ryuichi Sakamoto + Shiro Takatani: IS YOUR TIME - TPE / Taipei Music Center, Taipei Ryuichi Sakamoto + Shiro Takatani: seeing sound, hearing time / M WOODS Museum, Beijing 2020 Ryuichi Sakamoto + Shiro Takatani - water state 1 / Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media (YCAM), Yamaguchi Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2020: The Imagination of Time / Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo 2018 MeCA | Media Culture in Asia: A Transnational Platform, The Japan Foundation Asia Center, Tokyo 2017 3D Water Matrix / VIA Festival, Le Manège - Scène Nationale de Maubeuge Visions 2017 / Halles de Schaerbeek/Hallen van Schaarbeek, Brussels Body Media II / Power Station of Art, Shanghai Digitalife 8 / Romaeuropa Festival, Rome Reenacting History Collective Actions and Everyday Gestures / National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art (Dumb Type) Polar Patterns | Art and Antarctica / RMIT Project Space Gallery, Melbourne 2016 Digitalife 7 / Romaeuropa MACRO Testaccio - La Pelanda, Rome Le Grand Orchestre des Animaux / Fondation Cartier pour l'art contemporain, Paris GLOBALE: New Sensorium / ZKM, Karlsruhe 2015 Open Space / NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC], Tokyo 2014 Seeking New Genealogies — Bodies / Leaps / Traces / Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo City and Nature / Sapporo International Art Festival, Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo Kyotographie - international photography festival / The Museum of Kyoto Annex Art Robotique / Cité des sciences et de l'industrie, Paris 2013 ART-ENVIRONMENT-LIFE - YCAM 10th Anniversary, Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM] Re:emerge, Towards a New Cultural Cartography - Sharjah Biennial 11 / Sharjah Art Foundation New Art Spaces, Sharjah Kichizaemon X, special exhibition "teahouse of light" / Sagawa Art Museum, Shiga Kyotographie - international photography festival / Saigyo-an, Kyoto 2012 AfterGold / Radar, Loughborough University Kichizaemon X: Takatani Shiro + the 15th Raku Kichizaemon / Sagawa Art Museum, Shiga Art & Music - Search for New Synesthesia / Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo 2011 Matière-Lumière / Le 360, Bethune 2010 Digital Life / Romaeuropa, La Pelanda-MACRO, Rome Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions / Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo 2009 Ecology and Art – Thinking About the Earth Through Art: From Nearby to Far Away / Gunma Museum of Art, Tatebayashi A Blow to the Everyday / Osage Gallery, Hong Kong Earth: Art of a changing world / Royal Academy of Arts, London 2008 Cape Farewell / National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation, Tokyo Light InSight / NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC], Tokyo 2007 Vom Funken zum Pixel / Martin-Gropius-Bau, Berlin 2006 Rapt! 20 contemporary artists from Japan / Westspace, Melbourne 2005 Conversations with Snow and Ice / The Natural History Museum of Latvia, Riga Rising Sun, Melting Moon / The Israel Museum, Jerusalem 2003 Cyber Asia – media art in the near future / Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima Lille 2004 – European Capital of Culture, Lille 2001 media messages: look thru language / Sendai mediatheque, Sendai AFTER-IMAGE / The National Museum of Art, Osaka 2000 Musiques en Scène Festival / 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) 2019 ST/LL, Leisure and Cultural Services Department, Kwai Tsing Theatre, Hong Kong ST/LL, Singapore International Festival of Arts 2018 ST/LL, New National Theatre Tokyo 2017 ST/LL, National Performing Arts Center, National Theater & Concert Hall, Taipei CHROMA, One Dance Week Festival, Plovdiv 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, 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 LIFE-fluid, invisible, inaudible ... (DVD, 2008). Ryuichi Sakamoto + Shiro Takatani. Commmons RZBM-46410 OR (VHS, 1998). Dumb Type's performance recorded in 1997. Euro Space ESV-034 pH (VHS, 1992). Dumb Type performance recorded in 1991. Euro Space ESV-033

Awards Kyoto Prefecture Cultural Award (2019) "65th Prize of Fine Arts" (Art media) from the Ministry of Education of Japan (2015) "Merit CODAawards Winner 2015" (Institutional) for the 3D Water Matrix featuring Takatani's special artwork (2015) "Sole d'Ora" / TTVV Riccione (Italy) for Dumb Type video pH (1992) "Best Stage Recording / Studio Adaptation" / IMZ - Alter Oper, Dance Screen '92 Frankfurt (Germany) for Dumb Type video pH (1992)