Photography Project “Tokyo Perspective”

Photographer. Born 1958 in Rikuzentakata, Iwate. Hatakeyama is a photographer based in Tokyo whose works focus on the relationship between nature, city, and photography. He represented Japan in the 49th Venice Biennale held in 2001, and in 2012 participated in the Japanese pavillion of the Vennice Biennale International Architecture Exhibition (received Golden Lion prize). In addition, Hatakeyama received the 42nd Mainichi Art Award in 2001, as well as the Art Encouragement Prize by the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in 2012. Member of Japan Art Academy.

Born 1987 in Saitama and raised in Gunma, Japan. Graduated with a Master’s degree from the Department of Intermedia Art at Tokyo University of the Arts in 2012. At the core of Mari Katayama’s practice is living everyday within her own body, which she uses as a living sculpture, mannequin and lens through which to reflect society. The combination of Katayama’s hand-sewn objects, sculptural pieces, and photography challenges viewers to ques-tion the body and its complex relationship with the surrounding environment and society.

At the same time, Katayama initiated an activist art project called High Heel Project, which aims to create high heel shoes for prosthetics, while demanding the freedom of choice for all no matter what physical ability they have. Wearing her symbolic pair of custom-made high heels, Katayama continues to walk and speak up widely as an artist, singer, model and keynote speaker.

Photographer, Director of the Institute of Anthropology of Art and Design at Tama Art University. Engaged in extensive activities centered on themes of the emergence of images and memory. Served as Artistic Director of the Aichi Triennale 2016 and as International Curator for the “Taiwan Route3 Art Festival,” in 2023.Recipient of the 2019 Japan Photographic Society Award for “On Landscape: The Changing Earth and Japan’s Memory” (Chuokoron-Shinsha). Author of Photography Theory (Chuokoron-Shinsha, 2022) and Hilma af Klint: The Spirituality of Color (Inscript, 2025).

Artist, Professor at Tokyo University of the Arts (Department of Painting). Born 1963 in Odate City, Akita, Japan. In the early 1990’s, he set up guerilla art projects –THE GINBURART in Ginza and Sinjuku Shonen Art in Shinjuku’s Kabukicho district (1993). In 1997, he formed an alternative artist initiative called “commandN.” Activities of this group include the international video installation “Akihabara TV” held multiple years in 1999, 2000, and 2002. His work was displayed in the 49th Venice Biennale (2001) Japan Pavilion First & Slow exhibition.

From 2004, he founded a number of art projects including himming in Himi (Toyama Pref.) and ZERODATE in Odate (Akita Pref.) Nakamura then founded 3331 Arts Chiyoda in June 2010 as an independent and sustainable art center. With an extensive background in a variety of expressive activities, starting in summer 2020 he is taking on the challenge of developing the Tokyo Biennale, an art festival that will dig for the cultural and artistic resources underlying the city of Tokyo.

Active since 2012, the collective consists of Sakie Takasu, Tohru Matsushita, and Taishi Nishihiro, with film director Kazunobu Harimoto joining as a visual collaborator. Centering their practice on the theme of “noise in the landscape,” they create and present works primarily in public and street settings. Their programs often involve collaborations with a wide range of artists engaged in street culture.

Born 1963 in Shingu, Wakayama, Japan. In 1998, he published KUMANO, his first photo book, composed of sequences on the subject of visualizing points of view moving from here to there, shifting settings, and temporal change. In 2000, he won the 25th Ihei Kimura Photography Award for his photo book PILES OF TIME. Consistently making an analytic focus on the act of seeing as the basis of his work, he continues to photograph on themes that include Kumano, Mont Sainte-Victoire, Paul Cezanne’s studio, cherry trees, snow.

Major exhibitions include Photography and Painting—From Cézanne: Shibata Toshio and Suzuki Risaku (Artizon Museum, Tokyo, 2022), Stream of Consciousness (Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art, Kagawa; Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery; Tanabe City Museum of Art, Wakayama, 2015-2016), Water Mirror (Kumano Kodo Nakahechi Museum of Art, Wakayama, 2016), and Kumano, Yuki, Sakura (Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 2007).

Born 1967 in Saitama, Japan, Toyoshima received her MFA from Tokyo University of the Arts in 1993. By taking a critical look at institutions and systems found in everyday life and in our society, Toyoshima focuses on creating works that shed light on the patterns found in human thought. Her recent solo exhibitions include Yasuko Toyoshima: Origination Method (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2023), The Capital Room: Beyond Three Dimensional Logical Pictures vol.1 Yasuko TOYOSHIMA (2015, gallery αM). Her works have been presented at many group exhibitions, including Image Narratives: Literature in Japanese Contemporary Art (The National Art Center, Tokyo, 2019).