Erika Matsunami * 1963 in Hiroshima, Japan, lives and works in Berlin, Germany.

She took her first lessons in japanese dance at the age of three at Fujima, Toshika (Fuhima-Ryu, Japanese traditional dance association) and later she was taught by Hanayagi, Masatoyo (Hnayagi-Ryu, Japanese traditional dance association/the founder/choreografer/artist Hanayai, Juske (1821-1903) in 1849) and completed her dance exam in 1984 and received the artist name (in Japanese Nator-meii) „Hanayagi, Hosenyu" in 1984. From 1982 to 1984 she studied Fine Art / Sculpture under Prof. Hisashi Akutagawa (Sculptor, Tokyo) et al., Faculty of Fine Arts at the Hijiyama University, Hiroshima, Japans and advanced from 1884 to 1886 she studied research study (advanced courses) sculpture under Professor Hisashi Akutagawa, Faculty of Fine Arts at the Hijiyama University, Hiroshima, Japan. During this time she was a member of Shinseisaku kyokai Hiroshima, the artists' union of fine arts in the section of sculpture. Matsunami studied German (German Language University Entrance Examination for Foreign Applicants) at the University of Vienna in Austria and from 1991 to 1995 the College of Fine Arts, liberal arts, the Institute KAW- Aesthetic Education / Arts and Cultural Studies (Postgraduales Studium: Institut Kulturpädagogische Arbeitsstelle für Weiterbildung – Ästhetische Erziehung / Kunst- und Kulturwissenschaften/Institute for Art in Context) at the Universität der Künste Berlin (the Berlin University of the Arts) and she graduated the fine arts studies, liberal arts, the postgraduate course at the Institute - Aesthetic Education / Arts and Cultural Studies/Institute for Art in Context in 1997 under the supervision of Katharina Jedermann und Wolfgang Knapp.

Between 1995 and 1997 she participated as a guest student as the project was extended by her guraduate project leader/teacher untile she submitted her guraduate project and thesis in 1997. (Guraduate Presentation at Institut für Kunst im Kontext, Einsteinufe 34, in UdK Berlin in 1997. The representation of her Video work „FEEL" in the Program UdK Rundgang, Einsteinufer 34, Berlin)

Link Autor: Matsunami, Erika

In 1999 Erika Matsunami was employed as a visual artist (video and performance) at Pfefferwerk gGmbH in Berlin. She conceptualized and implemented the video project with young people, the video performance project "Drei Bewegte Figuren" in collaboration with Theater Thikwá eV, the performance in the gallery in Pfefferberg, Berlin-Prenzlauer Berg, etc. She had Pfefferwerk's professional training program such as the digital video editing program with Avid digital video and audio editing for film, Javascript, HTML and others successfully completed.

After studying Institute for Art in Context at the Berlin University of the Arts in 2008, Erika Matsunami researched with the projects “Sensation of Motion in Time” and “still/silent” under Wolfgang Knapp as a guest student (Gasthörerschaft) at the Institute for Art in the context (Head of the institute Prof. Dr. em. Micahel Fehl), the Faculty of Fine Arts at the Berlin University of the Arts. Afterwards, under Prof. Dr. Martin Supper, Head of UNI.K - – Studio für Klangkunst und Klangforschung, Faculty of Music at the Berlin University of Arts as a guest student (Gasthörerschaft) for cross- and interdisciplinary research.

From 2009 to 2010 Matsunami was the guest studentship (auditor) for the postgraduate artistc professional education under Honorary Professor Dr Martin Supper, composer, scientist and study programme director of the Master course in Sound Studies – Acoustic Communications at the ZIW of the UdK Berlin and head of the UNI.K – UdK l Studio for Sound Art and Sound Research the College of Music at the Universität der Künste Berlin, UdK (Berlin University of the Arts). Afterwards, from 2011 through 2012/13 she studied musicology for the postgraduate artistic professional education continually under Honorary Professor Dr Martin Supper, UNI.K – UdK l Studio für Klangkunst (sound art) und Klangforschung (sound research), College of Music at the the Berlin University of the Arts.

Erika Matsunami is an artist, works with transdisciplinary approach in large areas of arts with different mediums such as performance, video and sound art, photography and mixed-media installations. since 2009. Since 2000 she has been producing and developing experimental videos and visual performances. From 2000 to 2004, she was actively involved in work on the “Thikwa” berliner theatre project for the performance, choreography, mise-en-scène and video. She took the part of Exhibitions and Festivals at the Künstlerbahnhof Westend (Karl-Hofer Society/UdK, Berlin), the British National Film Theatre (BFI Southbank, London), Finnish National Gallery (Helsinki) and the Martin-Gropius-Bau (Berlin), to name but a few examples.

She has also been involved in OIO since December 2006, an artistic collaborative endeavour with the Greek composer and pianist Antonis Anissegos. Projects in recent years include “„deflection – rasenjo no jikan”, a performance and audiovisual installation at the Kyoto Art Centre (Japan, 2005), the experimental video “deflection” (2005) at the Experimental Video Film Festival EXIS 06 (Seoul), Media Art Festival (Friesland, NL), 20th Instans Video Festival (Marseille, FR) and transmediale 07 (Berlin), as well as the audiovisual improvisation „session“ (2007) at B-Flat (Berlin) and Gesellschaft/Ort e.V. (Wuppertal).
OIO cooperated with Japanese artist Kyota Takahashi on the “trans+ O” project in 2007 and has continually worked on a project by the name of “still/silent” at the following exhibitions and festivals: GlogauAIR (Berlin), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), Arttransponder (Berlin, 2007), Espai Niu/Hangar (Barcelona, 2008), Palazzo Pesaro Papafava (Venice, 2009) and the Experimental Video & Film Festival EXiS (Seoul, 2009).

In 2010, the project "still/silent" was continued with the jazz composer and bassist Chris Dahlgren (OIO expand) unter the program "OSTRALE'010" - International Exhibition of Contemporary Arts in OSTRALE (Center for Contemporary Art, Dresden) in Dresden, and in 2010 OIO solo by Erika Matsunami was performed at the Katalog presentation "still/silent" in the gallery weisser elefant in Berlin.

Her work is regularly represented in exhibitions, performances and festivals. CV_PDF