A classical saxophonist active in Japan and internationally, Masanori Oishi received his undergraduate and master’s degrees from Tokyo University of the Arts and is also a graduate of the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique de Paris. His solo album “Smoke: Japanese Solo Saxophone Works” won the Agency for Cultural Affairs National Arts Festival Award for Excellence in 2019. In 2024, Oishi released “Toshio Hosokawa: Works for Saxophone” on the Austrian label Kairos. He is currently a specially appointed associate professor at Osaka College of Music, a visiting professor at Elisabeth University of Music, and a lecturer at Tokyo University of the Arts and Senzoku Gakuen College of Music.
Odawara Nodoka is a sculptor, researcher, critic. Born in Miyagi Prefecture, she holds a Doctor of Arts from Tsukuba University. Her exhibitions include Kindai o chōkoku/chōkoku suru Tsunagi and Minamata hen [Overcoming/Sculpting Modernity: Tsunagi and Minamata], a solo exhibition at Tsunagi Art Museum in 2023, and the Aichi Triennale 2019. Solo publications include: “Kindai o chōkoku/chōkoku suru” [Overcoming/Sculpting Modernity] (Kodansha, 2021) and “Monument Theory: Sculpture as an Ideological Challenge” (Seidosya, 2023).
Born in Tokyo. Received her doctor’s degree (in literature) from Université de Toulouse – Le Mirail (presently Jean Jaurès University) and Sophia University. Has been contributing dance reviews to publications including Dance Magazine (Shinshokan), Sankei Shumbun, Asahi Shimbunand Yomiuri Shimbun,since 2003. Member of the Japan Dance Forum, judge at the Yokohama Dance Collection competition in 2017and 2018. Translates texts related to dance and literature (French/Japanese), and teaches French language, French literature and dance history at Keio Universityand other institutions.
Film director and stage actor. Born in Nagano in 1985, Ota majored in philosophy at Waseda University. “Sotsugyo,” his debut film, won the Japan Tomorrow and Audience Prizes at the 2010 Image Forum Festival, while “The End of The Special Time We Were Allowed” premiered in 12 countries. “Fragile” was released in 2020, soon to be followed by “Sunrise Vibration.” He has acted in plays by the theater company chelfitsch and others, as well as in several television dramas.
Born in Tokyo in 1955. Publisher and chief editor of culture web magazine “Realkyoto”. A guest researcher, Academic Research Center, Kyoto University of Art and Design. Senior Researcher of Kyoto Performing Arts Center, Kyoto University of Art and Design. From 2000 to 2016, publisher and chief editor of culture web magazine “Realtokyo”. In 2002 he published “One Hundred Years of Idiocy,” a photo book that summarized human idiocy in the 20th century and launched a bilingual contemporary art magazine “ART iT” in 2003. He became General Producer of performing arts section, Aichi Triennale 2013. He wrote and published a photo book “One Hundred Years of Lunacy” in 2014. In 2018 he wrote and published “What Is Contemporary Art?”