Tadasu Takamine

Biography

Tadasu Takamine was born in Kagaoshima in 1968, and began his career as a performer with the influential Japanese multi-media performance group “Dumb Type”. He works with different media like performance, video and installation. In theatre as well as in the area of the visual arts, he provocatively tackles social questions. He is known for working with political issues related to discrimination and prejudices in Japanese society. Takamine has had numerous exhibitions in Japan – for instance at the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art in Kanazawa, at Mimoca in Kagawaor at ARATANIURANO in Tokyo.
 

In his exhibition project “Tadasu Takamine's Cool Japan” (2012), which was presented at Art Tower Mito, he refers to the “Cool Japan” marketing campaign of the Japanese Ministry of Economy, which promotes Japanese popular culture. In light of the ecological effects of the nuclear catastrophe in Fukushima, promoting qualities like “coolness” represents a political instrumentalization of the population for Takamine. HAU Hebbel am Ufer invited him in October 2013 to join in a panel discussion, along with Toshiki Okada and Otomo Yoshihide, about the challenges posed to art as a result of the catastrophe, part of the series “Phantasma undPolitik”. Takamine is currently a fellow of the Berlin Artists Programme of the DAAD. This marks the first time he will show a work at HAU Hebbel am Ufer.

20.-29.05.2014 / Installation “Japan Syndrome“ / HAU2