Shiro Takatani. Between Nature and Technology, a documentary by Giulio Boato

Across Europe and Japan, this film covers over three decades of Shiro Takatani’s artistic journey, through his installations, and theatre and dance performances. Takatani and his collaborators (including the composer Ryuichi Sakamoto) explain the driving principles behind his work, where nature and people are observed through modern tools. Takatani uses technology to improve our understanding of our environment: enhancing infinitely small organisms, showing large-scale galaxies, and creating interactions between performers and dancers with cameras and large screens. Carefully selected performances and installations – remarkably filmed – demonstrate the evolution of his work.

The Japanese media artist Shiro Takatani is known for pioneering fresh possibilities in the performing arts scene. He is the co-founder and core member of the legendary Japanese artist collective Dumb Type that was founded in 1984. He has been the artistic director of Dumb Type since 1995 and has also had an active solo career since 1998. The works by Dumb Type have been exhibited and performed at notable venues internationally, such as the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Musée d’art contemporain de Lyon, Centre Pompidou, and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York. In 2022, Dumb Type represented Japan at the 59th Venice Biennale. Takatani has created several installations and so far he also created and directed three theatre and dance performances. Among others, he has collaborated with the Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto and Japan’s leading visual and sound artist Ryoji Ikeda.

Giulio Boato is a film and performance director. His work looks for different ways to blend cinema & performing arts. He collaborated with Jan Fabre, Romeo Castellucci, Dumb Type/Shiro Takatani, Ryuichi Sakamoto, Heiner Goebbels, Phil Griffin, Michail Barysnikov, Mario Perrotta, Lucia Ronchetti, Mariangela & Vinicio Capossela.

European Capital of Culture Tartu 2024 and Kanuti Gildi SAAL are proud to present the European premiere and the first new stage work in eight years by Shiro Takatani to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the world-renowned multidisciplinary arts collective Dumb Type.
Shiro Takatani / Dumb Type “Tangent” will be performed on June 4 and 5 at the Vanemuine theatre

Tickets available at Piletilevi and Fienta!

Director: Giulio Boato
Music: Lorenzo Danesin, Simon Fisher-Turner, Ryoji Ikeda, Ryuichi Sakamoto
France 2019
52´
In Japanese, English, French, with English subtitles

Introduction by Priit Raud (Kanuti Gildi SAAL) and Kati Torp (SA Tartu 2024).