P r o f i l e

Guest Director

＜ Planning Advisor ＞

Akira Asada

＜ Planning Staff ＞

Associate Curator Shihoko Iida

Regional Director Satoshi Hata Guest Director Ryuichi Sakamoto

Born in 1952, Sakamoto released his debut solo album in 1978. In the same year, he formed the pioneering electronic band (YMO) with and . Since YMO disbanded in 1983, he has continued to be active in and beyond the realm of media in the fields of music, movies, publishing, advertising and others.

In 1984, he won a British Academy Film Award among other accolades for Merry Christmas, Mr. Lawrence, which he starred in and composed the score for. He later won an Academy Award and a Grammy among other honors for his score to the 1987 film . He has since changed his career base to the West and earned an international reputation for pursuing innovative sounds.

In , Sakamoto advocated the revitalization of the nation’s and established the commons music community in 2006 to provide common ground for music-related activities transcending genres and categories.

Since the release of his opera LIFE in 1999, Sakamoto has often made reference to environmental and peace issues in his works. In 2000, he contributed to the efforts of Jubilee 2000 – an international movement calling for the cancellation of debts weighing on the world’s poorest countries by the year 2000 with supporters including Bono from rock band U2 and Bob Geldof. In 2001, he founded artists’ power, an artists’ organization advocating the use of . He joined fellow members and Kazutoshi Sakurai in founding the NGO in 2003. In 2006, he opposed the operation of the Rokkasho Reprocessing Plant and launched the website stop-rokkasho.org. In July of 2007, he established more trees, a global initiative to support the planting of trees, and engaged in a variety of activities including efforts to raise awareness of the need to combat global warming, conserve forests and plant trees.

Following the March 2011 earthquake and tsunami, Sakamoto launched projects to support disaster victims, including kizunaworld.org (http://kizunaworld.org/), LIFE311 – by more trees (http://life311. more-trees.org/) and the Children’s Music Revival Fund – School Music Revival (http://www. schoolmusicrevival.org/), which continue their activities today. He organized the No Nukes 2012 held on July 7 and 8, 2012, to call for a nuclear phase-out, thereby expressing his intention to keep pursuing the ideal of a world without nuclear power and nuclear weapons through the medium of music. His major albums include B-2 UNIT, Illustrated Musical Encyclopedia, BEAUTY, LIFE, out of noise and THREE. His books include Ongaku wa jiyu ni suru (lit. “Music sets you free”). He also co- authored Jomon seichi junrei (lit. “A pilgrimage to the home of Jomon culture”), Imadakara yomitai hon – 3/11 go no Nihon (lit. “Books to read in post-3/11 Japan” and NO NUKES 2012 bokura no mirai gaido bukku (lit. “NO NUKES 2012 guidebook to our future”).

In 2002, he received the Order of the Cavaleiro Admissão from the government of Brazil for his contribution to ties of friendship between Japan and Brazil. At the ECHO Festival held in conjunction with World Environment Day in 2009, he was awarded the UN Environment Programme’s Echo Award for his eco-friendly initiatives in music. In the same year, he was named an Officier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the government of France in recognition of his contribution to cultural diversity in his role as an artist. In 2010, he received the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Art Encouragement Prize of popular entertainment field from the Agency for Cultural Affair for his outstanding achievements in artistic fields. These accolades are testimony to the strong worldwide respect people have for his activities as a whole.

Sakamoto also enjoys the confidence of people in the arts world for his flexible approach to music and arts and for his extensive knowledge, which encompasses history, ideology and philosophy. He was appointed as a general adviser to the 2012 Art Meeting (III): Art and Music – Search for New ‘Synesthesia’ at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, and is also artistic director for a 2013 program celebrating the 10th anniversary of the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media.

He has been based in New York since 1990.

• Use of the profile photo (photo credit) If you use the profile photo provided in the Press Kit, please be sure to credit it as follows: ©2011 Kab Inc. Photography by Rama ＜ Planning Advisor ＞ Akira Asada Born in Kobe in 1957, Asada serves as the Dean of the Graduate School at the Kyoto University of Art and Design and also teaches Philosophy of Art there. He also works as a critic in a wide range of fields, including politics, the economy, society, and art (literature, film, drama, dance, music, fine art, and architecture). Asada’ s books include Structure and Power (Keiso Shobo), A Theory of Escape and The Music of Hermes (both Chikuma Shobo), The End of Cinema’s Century (Shinchosha Publishing), Beyond “The End of History” (collection of dialogues; Chuokoron Shinsha). He also served as a co-editor of Japanese quarterly journals InterCommunication and Hihyokukan (Critical Space).

＜ Planning staff ＞ Associate Curator

Shihoko Iida ＜ Independent Curator ＞ Shihoko Iida was a member of the Tokyo Opera City Cultural Foundation from 1998 to 2009 for the inauguration of its Art Gallery (TOCAG), where she served as Curator until August 2009. Iida was posted in Brisbane, Australia and Seoul, Korea as Visiting Curator from 2009 to 2011. Now based in Nagoya City, Iida works as an Independent Curator in exhibition planning, and also contributes articles to magazines and gives lectures. Her recent work includes stints as Official Curator of Japan Participation for the 15th Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh 2012 and Co-Curator at the Aichi Triennale 2013. Major exhibitions on which Iida has worked include: • Wolfgang Tillmans – Freischwimmer, 2004, TOCAG, Tokyo • Rapt! 20 contemporary artists from Japan (hosted by and co-curated with the Japan Foundation), 2005 – 2006, various cities in Australia • Trace Elements – spirit and memory in Japanese and Australian photomedia (co-curated with Performance Space), 2008, TOCAG, Tokyo/2009, Performance Space, Sydney, Australia • Omnilogue: Journey to the West (hosted by and co-curated with the Japan Foundation), 2012, Lalit Kala Academy Gallery 1 & 2, New Delhi,

＜ Planning staff ＞ Regional Director

Satoshi Hata ＜ Artist/Art Director ＞ Born in 1960, Hata lives and is based in Sapporo. His works as an artist and his activities extend beyond Sapporo, including overseas. In 1995 he resided in Germany with funding from the German Academic Exchange Service (DAAD) and contributed works to numerous Japanese and overseas exhibitions. On the site of CAI02 Contemporary Art Gallery in which he is the director, and the other occasions he has curated a number of exhibitions by young artists from Hokkaido, overseas (in Germany, , and Poland), and more recently he has also worked as a performing-arts director. In 2011 he acted as artistic director of the Sapporo Pre-Biennale Contemporary Art Exhibition 2011 held at the Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art and the Sapporo Art Museum as part of a privately funded initiative to hold an international art festival in Sapporo. He received the Sapporo Culture Encouragement Prize in 2004 and the Hokkaido Culture Encouragement Award in 2012.