Performing Arts Exchange Program 2025 in Bangkok

Following an open call for artists to participate in Performing Arts Exchange Program in Singapore and Bangkok, which we jointly organized with the Yokohama International Performing Arts Meeting (YPAM) (https://www.jpf.go.jp/j/project/culture/perform/exchange_perform/2025/06-01.html), we are pleased to announce the four Japanese artists selected for the exchange program in Bangkok.

The artists will participate as speakers in talk event at YPAM and share their experiences at the Bangkok Theatre Festival, GHOST:2568, and a workshop led by Pichet Klunchun, as well as introduce their own artistic practices.

For more details about this event, please refer to: YPAM Talk Event (Meeting Point)

Biographies of Selected Artists

ASAKAWA Kanae

Dancer / Choreographer

Photo: Hisaki Somemiya

She trained in rhythmic gymnastics from the age of five and began dancing at eighteen. Her work explores human emotions in light and darkness, life and death, and war and peace. She is acknowledged for flexible, precise movement and delicate expression, creating performances that reflect memory and time. She has developed works during residencies in a leather industry region and day service facility, blending dance with different contexts. She has received awards including Yokohama Dance Collection 2021-DEC Best Newcomer and has been invited to international festivals.

ONUKI Tomomi

Artist / Architect

Photo: Yukasa Narisada

M.A. in Architecture from Tokyo University of the Arts. Studied Performance during an exchange program at the State Academy of Fine Arts in Stuttgart. She works in architectural design while creating performance works. Her practice began from a sense of detachment from her own body and explores new relationships between the body and surrounding phenomena. As a member of pito, she creates performances and workshops that shift spatial and bodily perception through cognition and memory in architectural settings. Works: (Descrip)(Fic)tion (2023, Germany), Dynamics – WIP (2024, Tokyo).

OGURA Emi

Dancer / Performer / Choreographer / Director

Photo: tomcude

Born in Gifu in 1996. Since 2014, she has been working actively in Kyoto, performing in stage productions and concerts with companies and artists such as Masako Yasumoto and Akira Kasai. Her work spans across artistic genres including dance, music, stage production, and event planning. Emi founded her creative collective SMILE in 2021, presenting works such as A human dodging a fried oyster and SUPER COMPLEX. Since 2022, she has been the organizer of the KYOTO Cultural Festival and will also serve as a Co-program Director for the Kyoto International Dance Workshop Festival starting from 2025.

KATO Ayako

Violinist / Artist

Photo: Hideto Maezawa

Violinist. Researches the physicality and behavior shaped by classical music in Asian countries, and performs recitals and performance works. Major works to date include a recital, “Breath the Form,” and performances of the works (Meta)Fiction by a Violinist and I’M MEAT! Selected for KAAT’s “Kaihatsu” project, the Toyooka Theater Festival Fringe Showcase, and the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa’s “&21+.” Formed the unit “Leisure Time” with actor Yui Okamoto, and is a member of the music collective “Yamabico Lab” based in Nagano Prefecture.

KAMO Keitaro

Director / Producer

He lives in Fukuoka City. As an independent artist, he engages in performing arts planning, directing, and performing. He has experience in running theater festivals and working at cultural facilities. In recent years, he has been exploring the possibilities of theater-based expression with the theme of “integration into daily life,” participating in art festivals and collaborating with artists from different genres. In 2024, he participated in an artist-in-residence program for the first time. He has produced around 20 works to date, and has presented them in Fukuoka, Yokohama, and Osaka.

TAKEMOTO Takuya

Performance

Photo: Sayuri Murooka

Born in 1990 in Gunma, Japan. Lives in Tokyo. Graduated from Musashino Art University. Intrigued by the question, “What it means when people stand in front of other people in performing arts,” Takemoto is staging performances that incorporate aspects of minute sensation and movement. He has been doing such performances daily, consistently since 2017, with or without an audience. Up to now, he has given performances and workshops in cities such as Tokyo, Yokohama, Kyoto, Paris, New York, Lancaster, Manchester, Düsseldorf, and Hamburg. Selected as a 2024–25 Saison Fellow I by The Saison Foundation.