Yukari SAKATA
Director / Artist
Yukari Sakata began composing music at a young age. In 2005, she entered Tokyo University of the Arts, Department of Musical Creativity and the Environment, where she found her interests lay in theatrical arts and started directing. After graduating she took part in numerous productions as a technician in theatres all over Japan. These included 3 years at SPAC (the Shizuoka Performing Arts Centre) where she had the opportunity to collaborate with theatre companies from across the world. Whilst working at SPAC, Sakata started her career as an independent theatre director. She directed “Rashomon”(2014) in collaboration with Al-Kasaba Theatre from Palestine.
In recent years, she has experimented with applying the ideas and techniques of theatre to the format of the exhibition. Her long-term project “Dear Gullivers” with the architect Jorge Martín García was featured in the Spanish pavilion at the 16th Venice Biennale in 2018. In the same year, they presented another research-based project “Nobody’s Place/Nowhere’s Map” in Athens, in collaboration with Spanish anthropologist Isabel Gutiérrez Sánchez. They interviewed 24 artists who have experienced 10 years since the economic crisis, visited various spots in the city of Athens related to individual topics, and mapped them on floating paper sculpture.
Sakata is currently an assistant professor at the Public Collaboration Center, Tokyo University of the Arts. In 2020, her own theatre production “TERA” was developed into the Asian collective “TERASIA: Theater for Traveling in the Age of Isolation”. Since then, she has played a central role in the planning and management of the project.
[Education]
2009 B.A. in Musical Creativity and Environment, Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai)
2018 Exchange International Student at Athens School of Fine Arts (ASFA), Greece
2019 M.A. in Global Art Practice, Tokyo University of the Arts (Geidai)
[Residency]
2018 BEPPU PROJECT Kashima Artist in Residence in Los Angeles, USA
[Awards]
2019 First Prize in Global Art Practice from Tokyo University of the Arts
[Show History]
2020-2022 TERASIA – Theatre for Traveling in the Age of Isolation
2021 “TERA in Kyoto” (Kosho-ji Temple, Kyoto)
2019 Théâtrales de Carthage (Carthage theatre days) ”TERA” (Tunis, Monastir, Zaghouan)
2019 Spring Board 2019 (Ueno Break Station Gallery, Tokyo)
2019 Closing Performance for George Stamatakis Solo Exhibition “Wooden Garden” (Gallery K, Tokyo)
2019 “Nobody’s Place/Nowhere’s Map (Japanese Version)”
(Tokyo University of Fine Arts Graduation Works Exhibition)
2018 “Tera” (Festival/Tokyo 18, Saiho-ji Temple, Tokyo)
2018 “Dear Gullivers” (Venice Architecture Biennale in 2018, Spanish Pavillion)
2018 “Nobody’s Place/Nowhere’s Map” (9th Painting Studio, Athens School of Fine Arts, Athens)
2018 “FREEDOM” (Basement Gallery, Athens School of Fine Arts, Athens)
2018 “OTON Project” (Organized by Onassis Cultural Center, Athens)
2018 “Translucent Landscapes” (Matsumura Gift Shop, Los Angeles)
2017 “Khail Taiha” Written by Adnan Alaoda [Syria]
(Sponsored by Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan and Japanese Centre of International Theatre Institute / UNESCO, Tokyo)
2017 “Dear Gullivers” (Cookhouse Gallery – Chelsea Collage of Arts, London)
2017 “In Late Style” Written by Kenzaburo Oe (Tokyo)
2017 “Ping” Written by Samuel Beckett [France]
(GAP Award Exhibition “Black and White and Blue” in Youkobo Art Space, Tokyo)
2016 “Dear Gullivers” (Setouchi Triennale 2016 Exhibition “Complex Topography: Movement and Change”, Takamatsu)
2016 “Supermarket of Names” (Minato Media Museum 2016, Ibaraki)
2014 “Rashomon” (International co-production with Al-Kasaba Theatre [Palestine], Festival/Tokyo14, Tokyo)
2009 “Proserpina” Written by Goethe (Toga Director Concours and Festival/ Tokyo09 Spring, Toyama)
2008 “BOMBSONG” Written by Thea Dorn [Germany] (International Drama Reading Festival [Japan], Kawasaki)