Born 1963 in Paisley, UK

Anya Gallaccio has been creating simple yet impactful installations that focus on the natural degradation of objects like flowers, candles and ice since the 1990s. She was nominated for the Turner prize in 2003 and is currently based in London and San Diego, California.

Cooperation: The British Council Collection, Thomas Dane Gallery

Born 1993 in Tokyo, Japan

Graduated from Department of Inter-Media Art, Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts in 2021. Themed on the relationships between “things” in contemporary media environments and “humans” in their childhood days, his works generate innocent sensations. His plan for Art Saitama 2023 is to create a new work based on fieldwork conducted in the Minuma rice field area.

Born 1979 in Aarhus, Denmark

Performs with a modular synthesizer incorporating field recordings into his electronic compositions. At this festival, he will present a live performance of a new composition using a variety of audio samples recorded while staying in Saitama City.

https://jenspaldam.com/

Born 1955 in Tokyo, Japan 

Writes poems and essays based on her observations of aspects of “living” and “dying,” and from the viewpoint of a woman living in the present age. Inspired by things like raising children, living with a dog, dealing with dying parents, and an interest in Buddhism, she vigorously continues to produce works that reflect her own experiences. After spending some time abroad, Ito now lives in Kumamoto. Works include The Thorn Puller, Onna no issho (“a woman’s life”), Yoi oppai warui oppai (“good breasts, bad breasts”) and many others.

Audio courtesy of Asahi Shimbun Publications Inc.

Born 1957 in Osaka, Japan 

Has been creating works of art from such light materials as cardboard and wire, since the mid-1980s. While using ordinary daily life utensils and materials, he aims to reveal various invisible relationships and domains. Developed his interest in mushrooms into the creation of large-scale works that unfold in connection with their respective locations, while continuing to explore “private” matters   in his most recent works. At Art Saitama 2023, he will unveil a new creation at the main venue. 

Both artists born 1984 in Shizuoka (Nakajima) and Amori (Odagiri), Japan

Duo of artists Nakajima Tetsuya and Odagiri Susumu. Both graduated from the Department of Space and Architecture, Shizuoka University of Art  and Culture. In their projects, they promptly and flexibly combine a minimum number of items and local materials while incorporating ideas and techniques from the realms of art, design, architecture and folk craft. They also run the “Daily Supply SSS” store.

http://www.lpack.jp/

Born 1987 in Osaka, Japan 

[Movie  Screening:  Ts’onot/Cenote and OUR CINEMAS (short film)]

Oda’s works explore the meaning of “human life” and “memories” through images and sounds. Her feature-length movie Aragane (2015), shot in a Bosnian coal mine, received a Special Mention in the “New Asian Currents” section at the Yamagata International Film Festival. Her feature film Ts’onot/Cenote (2019) won the inaugural Nagisa Oshima Prize in 2020, and received the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology's New Face Award (Fine Arts) in 2021.

https://www.fieldrain.net/

Born 1991 in Moldova

Artist based in Amsterdam and Paris, who observes through her works all kinds of social and cultural matters. Her photographs have been featured in cultural magazines including M le Monde and Wallpaper, and advertisements for fashion brands such as Chloé or Maison Margiela. At Art Saitama 2023, she will shoot a series of portraits that focus on the daily life of local citizens, in collaboration with editor Kawashima Takuhito.

https://www.olya-o.com/

Cooperation: HORIUCHI COLOR LTD., GIN-ICHI CORP., Frameman Co., Ltd.

Born 1986 in New York, USA

Established the creative agency “kontakt” in 2015, and was subsequently involved in advertising campaigns for Japanese and foreign fashion brands, while also launching the interview magazine Partners in 2017. His displays at Art Saitama 2023 include a portrait project focusing on people’s daily life in Saitama City, realized in collaboration with a number of photographers and local elementary students, as well as a fashion show at the main venue.

https://kontakt.press/

Cooperation: HORIUCHI COLOR LTD., GIN-ICHI CORP., Frameman Co., Ltd.

Born 1989 in Montreal, Canada

[Movie Screening: It's Only the End of the World]

Played a child’s part in a movie when he was about six years old. Made his debut as a director in 2009 with I Killed My Mother (2009), which he also wrote and produced, and which was selected for the Director's Fortnight program at the Cannes Film Festival. In 2014, Mommy, for which he took again charge of direction, scriptwriting, editing, costume design and production, won a Jury Prize at Cannes, followed by the movie shown here, which was awarded a Grand Prize at the same festival. 

http://gaga.ne.jp/sekainoowari-xdolan

Born 1987 in Mie, Japan 

Began learning classical and modern ballet at the age of three. In each of her works, she confronts herself and others, and explores the possibilities of “dance” by using the stage structure to create fiction out of the events that occur there. Since 2016, she has presided over “akakilike.” Kurata is a Saison Fellow I of the Saison Foundation. At Art Saitama 2023, she will create and present a new work in collaboration with local residents and others.

https://akakilike.jimdofree.com/

Born 1968 in Tokyo, Japan  

Artistic Director of Saitama Arts Theater. Founded the dance company Condors in 1996, and has been in charge of composition, direction and choreography for all of their pieces, which have been staged in about 30 countries around the world. He has also been involved in numerous TV, movie and stage productions as a choreographer or performer. Received an Asahi Performing Arts Award Shuji Terayama Award, and the Minister of Education Award for Arts. At Art Saitama 2023, he will engineer a string of unique activities of so-called “SCAPERS.”

http://www.condors.jp/

https://www.saf.or.jp/

In the large hall of the festival’s main venue, various Saitama-based civic cultural organizations showcase their activities, ranging from jazz, orchestral and brass band music, to Japanese drumming and choral singing, in performances that also include rehearsals and preparations.

Participating groups:

IWATSUKI Jazz / Urawa Guitar Mandolin Club / Kocarina Oak/ Saitama Prefectural Ohmiya Koryo High School Choir / Saitama City Urawa Ginkenshibudo Federation / Saitama City Musicians’ Association / Saitama Municipal Urawa HighSchool Wind Orchestra / Saitama-Municipal Shirahata Junior High School Dance Club (SDC) / Saitama University Wind Orchestra / Saitama Wadaiko Promotion Society / Volunteers from local amateur orchestras

Born 1969 in Chicago, USA 

Has been focusing on improvised guitar performance since his late teens, and continues to create and release highly experimental musical works while involved in a diverse range of projects between music and cinema. He produced numerous recordings by artist such as Wilco, performed with the likes of Merce Cunningham and Sakata Akira, and provided soundtracks for movies by Werner Herzog and Wakamatsu Koji. 

https://steamroom.bandcamp.com

Born 1965 in Beijing, China

[Movie Screening: Lone Existence]

His debut film Wellspring won an Ogawa Shinsuke Prize in the “New Asian Currents” section at the Yamagata International Documentary Film Festival 2003, and was subsequently nominated for the 2004 Visions du Réel, and numerous other film festivals around the world. At Art Saitama 2023, Sha will unveil Lone Existence, a feature-length documentary movie examines the roots of human (self-)observation, which developed from his 2010 film Fading Reflections.

Born 1969 in Chiba, Japan

Established a routine of photographing whenever he walks around alone since around 2005, when he first started taking photographs with a digital camera. Collaborated on Jung Yeondoo’s work Just Like the Road Across the Earth that was exhibited at Art Tower Mito Contemporary Art Gallery in 2014. His works have been featured in numerous exhibitions, including “Hajimari Art Center” in 2021. For Art Saitama 2023, he will shoot photographs at various locations across Saitama City, the results of which will represent the very nature of the art festival and its explorations of the act of “seeing.”

https://note.com/shiratorikenji/

https://twitter.com/kenkenshiratori/

https://www.instagram.com/kenkenshiratori/

Born 1975 in Gifu, Japan 

Doctor of Engineering, specializes in urban and local planning, and community and public space design. She has been an associate professor at the Department of Architecture, Faculty of Science and Engineering, Toyo University since 2017. At Arts Saitama 2023, she heads the SCAPER LAB examining the activities of mysterious ”SCAPERS“ from the viewpoints of urbanism and architecture, while also partaking in the Lab’s unique “scientific research.”

https://sukeken.jp/

https://www.instagram.com/scaper_lab/

Born 1982 in Tokyo, Japan 

Creates works across a wide variety of media and formats, including painting, computer graphics, animation, and interactive installation utilizing computers, to explore human imagination and sensation between real and fictional existence, the “self” and the “other,” material and non-material things. Taniguchi’s works have been shown in Tokyo, New York, Los Angeles, and at various other places around the world.

http://makototaniguchi.com

Cooperation: Liquitex

This program introduces works created by Japanese young animation artists. Featured works include 3 Intestine Road, Fish Island (2022) by WAKABAYASHI Moe, Magnified City (2022) by KANEKO Isaku, and such a good place to die (2014) by Onohana. 

WAKABAYASHI Moe 

Animation artist, illustrator

Born 1992 in Kanagawa, Japan

Creates narratives inspired by puns and proverbs, and translates them into colorful animations with a retro flair. The protagonists in these fables are animals, monsters, and all sorts of other strange characters – living or dead – that radiate cuteness and sadness at the same time.

https://www.moewakabayashi.com/

KANEKO Isaku

Animation artist

Born 1994 in Shizuoka, Japan 

Graduated from Department of Modern Mechanical Engineering, School of Science and Engineering, Waseda University in 2016, and completed a design course at Tama Art University in 2020. Works include Locomotor (2019), The Balloon Catcher (2020) and Magnified City(2022). 

Onohana

Animation artist, painter

Born 1986 in Iwate, Japan 

Studied at the Department of Animation of the Graduate School of Film and New Media, Tokyo University of the Arts. Creates metamorphically flowing animations, conceptual abstract landscapes, and other works themed around observations of the menace of nature and the real world.

Born 1935 in California, USA

Came into the spotlight and became known as the “father of minimal music” when his composition in C was released in 1964, while the piece itself is rooted on the “psychedelic” side of music. He exerted great influence also on numerous Japanese artists, including Yokoo Tadanori and Hisaishi Joe among others. Riley lives in Yamanashi since 2020.

https://twitter.com/TerryRiley_info

https://www.instagram.com/kirana_east/

Born 1943 in Ottawa, USA

[Movie Screening: Voyage of Time]

Studied philosophy at Harvard University, and later at Oxford University, but quit along the way to become one of the world’s most renowned filmmakers. He won an award for Best Director at the Cannes Film Festival for Days of Heaven (1978), a Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival for Thin Red Line (1998), and a Palme d'Or, the highest award at the Cannes Film Festival, for Tree of Life (2011).  

Born 1978 in Kanagawa, Japan 

[Movie Screening: Happy Hour]

His movie Happy Hour (2015), with a running time of over five hours, received a Special Mention at the Locarno International Film Festival among others. Drive My Car (2021) won a total of four awards including Best Screenplay at the Cannes Film Festival, and an Academy Award for Best International Feature Film. He is presently one of the most internationally acclaimed filmmakers.

Born 1981 in Tokushima, Japan

Started creating bonsai after seeing the impressive Hojo garden by Misuzu Shigemori at Tofuku-ji temple, and became an apprentice of Kato Manseien in Bonsai-cho, Saitama. Today he offers numerous bonsai workshops and performances in Japan and abroad. Positioned between improvisation and traditional technique, he continues to explore new possibilities in the art of bonsai through a cycle of forgetting and learning. In 2013, he traveled around 11 countries as a Japanese cultural envoy. Hirao operates the “Seishoen” bonsai garden in Nishi-ku, Saitama City. 

http://bonsaihirao.net/

Born 1976 in Bangkok, Thailand 

[Movie Screening: Manta Ray]

Studied art at Silpakorn University, and movie production in New York. In 2007, he produced and presented a short film during his residency at the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum. His short film Ferris Wheel (2015) has been shown at more than 20 film festivals around the world, and received numerous awards. Manta Ray (2018) is Aroonpheng’s first feature-length movie.

Born 1985 in Toronto, Canada 

Photographer based in Berlin. In addition to advertising campaigns for the likes of Gucci and Hermès, he has been working for publications such as Fantastic Man and The New York Times. Published NICE, a book of portraits of young people shot in passing during journeys, in 2021. At Art Saitama 2023, he will produce a series of portraits of citizens walking in the streets, in collaboration with editor Kawashima Takuhito.

https://www.webberrepresents.com/artists/mark-peckmezian

https://www.instagram.com/mark_peckmezian/

Cooperation: HORIUCHI COLOR LTD., GIN-ICHI CORP., Frameman Co., Ltd.

Born 1975 in Thessaloniki, Greece 

Works in collaboration with different communities to create art projects that combine moving image and sound performance, and focus on social, political and environmental themes. His projects highlight alternative modes of human action and solidarity, while nurturing critical attention, empathy and restorative futures. Works have been shown at various international occasions including Venice Biennale (2011), Biennale of Sydney (2014), etc. At Art Saitama 2023, he will unveil a new work realized with participation from high school students from Saitama City.  

http://www.mikhailkarikis.com/

Specially supported by the British Council

Equipment cooperation: Masayuki Miyaji, Twelve Inc.

Cooperation: Saitama Prefectural Ohmiya Koryo High School

*The artist is supported by the School of Arts & Creative Industries, Teesside University, United Kingdom

Born 1982 in Shiga, Japan

Employs approaches of documentary and fieldwork, to create and exhibit works in various contexts and formats including video, theater and visual art. Emerging from the boundary between reality and fiction, these works not only question the methodology of artistic expression, but explore at once also the “reality” of life in the real world. Murakawa will unveil a new work at this festival.