photo: ArtisTree
YOKO SEYAMA
Multimedia artist, Scenographer, Set Designer, Bühnenbild
BIOGRAPHY
The Berlin-based Japanese scenographer and Multimedia artist Yoko Seyama specializes in spatial time-based art. Her background is in architecture and dance. Her works combine digital elements with natural materials and transform them into mutating spaces in Public Spaces, Theatres, Museums, and Galleries.
Her installations have been exhibited throughout the world, Zentrum für Internationale Lichtkunst (Unna DE), Borås Art Museum (Borås SE), Museo della luce (Rome IT), LUMINA Festival of Light (Cascais PT), Lighting Guerrilla Festival (Ljubljana SL), Vilnius Light Festival (Vilnius LT), Wood Street Galleries (Pittsburgh US), STRP, TodaysArt, SonicActsXIII NL), Pola Museum Annex, Todays Art (JP), Bangkok Citycity Gallery, MAIIAM (TH) and many others.
This Summer, the kinetic light installation 'Saiyah #2.10' will be presented for Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale 2024 in Japan.
Her passion for the Performing Arts has been ongoing for over 15 years. She has created her unique visual world for dance, ballet, musicals, opera, and concerts. She has staged with many theatre directors, choreographers, and composers worldwide. Collaborations include Jiří Kylián ('Mémoires d’Oubliettes' Nederlands Dans Theater), Dirk P Haubrich, Giorgio Madia ('Die Fledermaus' Grand Theatre Łódź PL), Cornelius Baltus ('Miss Saigon' Theatre of Musical Comedy St Petersburg), Jean-Philippe Dury ('The Nutcracker' Leipzig Ballet), Raimondo Rebeck ('Cinderella' 'Beethoven Immortal Love' Astana Opera KZ, 'Lazgi' Uzbek National Ballet), Iván Pérez (Dance Theatre Heidelberg DE), Gentian Doda (Berlin Staatsballett DE), Lesley Telford (Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, Compañía Nacional de Danza SP), Fernando Melo (National Dance Company Wales UK, Norrdans SE), Megumi Nakamura (New National Ballet of Japan), Roberto Scafati, James Sutherland, Alfonso Palencia, Benjamin Staern and others. She presented her new scenographic work for GRAND SHOW 2023 Berlin Friedrichstadt-Palast, Germany.
She holds an MA in ArtScience from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and a BA in Architecture from Musashino Art University, Tokyo. She has received a grant from the Pola Art Foundation (JP), a Lighting Design Award in Concert Lighting Installation, and a nomination for the 22nd Hong Kong Dance Awards Shortlist Outstanding Set Design.
COLLABORATORS
Choreographers, Directors, Artists (alphabetical):
Cornelius Baltus / Musical Director
Wolf Bittner / Artist
Jitti Chompee /Choreographer, 18 Monkeys Dance Theater
Gentian Doda / Choreographer, Staatsballet Berlin
Pedro Goucha Gomes / Choreographer, Korzo Theatre
Jean-Philippe Dury / Choreographer, EBB Dance Company, Leipzig Ballet
Armen Hakobyan and Denis Untila / Choreographer, Aalto Ballet Essen
Frankie Ho / Choreographer, Hook Dance Theater
Dirk P Haubrich / Composer
Oliver Hoppmann / Creative Director, Friedrichstadt-Palast Berlin
Lyndsey Housden / Artist
Iván Pérez / Choreographer, Dance Theatre Heidelberg
Kenta Kojiri / Dancer, Choreographer
Jiri Kylian / Choreographer, NDT
Giorgio Madia / Director, Choreographer, Grand Theatre, Łódź
Sebastian Matthias / Choreographer
Fernando Melo / Choreographer
Yasuhiro Morinaga / Composer
Megumi Nakamura / Choreographer
Alfonso Palencia / Ballet Director, Stadttheater Bremerhaven
Raimondo Rebeck / Astana Opera, ACDF Uzbekistan
Roberto Scafati / Choreographer, Theatre Trier
Daniel Schorno / Composer
Benjamin Staern / Composer
Lesley Telford / Choreographer, Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, Compañía Nacional de Danza
Jeroen Uyttendaele / Artist
EXHIBITION
Festival Maintenant (Rennes, FR)
Borås Art Museum (Borås, SE)
LUNA - Urban Night Adventure (Leeuwarden, NL)
Artistree Taikoo Place (HK)
Vilnius Light Festival (Vilnius, LT)
LUMINA Festival of Light (Cascais, PT)
OBLIK (Berlin, DE)
Svetlobna Gverila, Lighting Guerrilla Festival (Ljubljana, SL)
EVI LICHITUNGEN International Light Art Biennale (Hildesheim DE)
Unfolding Kafka Festival, Bangkok Citycity Gallery (Bangkok TH))
MAIIAM Contemporary Art Museum (Chiang Mai TH)
Visual Art Week, Argentina (Buenos Aires, AR)
Gallery2 (Berlin DE)
ACUD Berlin (Berlin DE)
TodaysArt. JP, Kobe Art Village Center (Kobe JP)
TodaysArt. JP, Terrada warehouse 'Plane Scape' (Tokyo JP)
Annex exhibition, Pola Museum Annex Gallery (Tokyo JP)
Artifact Festival, STUK 'Plane Scape' (Leuven BE)
Wood Street Galleries (Pittsburgh USA)
Zentrum für Internationale Lichtkunst (Unna DE)
Platform 57 'Plane Scape' (The Hague NL)
5Mm | vijf minuten museum (Eindhoven NL)
Scopiton Festival (Nantes France)
E-pulse festival in Breda (Breda NL)
KAAP Fort Ruigenhoek (Utrecht NL)
STRP Festival, ‘Transient Landscapes’ (Eindhoven NL)
Filmhuis Workspace 10, ZAAL5 (The Hague NL)
TodaysArt 2010 Den Haag (The Hague NL)
MediaLab Enschede ‘Lightwork #6: In Soil' (TETEM Enschede NL)
SonicActsXIII (Netherlands Media Institute NIMk, Amsterdam NL)
E-pulse festival in Breda (Breda NL)
TransNatural, Multiplexart ‘Gardening’ ( Trouw Amsterdam NL)
'Med!aphosis' (Gallery Dom omladine, Belgrade, Serbia)
THEATERS / COMPANIES
Friedrichstadt-Palast Berlin, DE
Staatsballett Berlin, DE
Leipzig Ballet, DE
Aalto Ballett Essen, DE
Dance Theatre Heidelberg, DE
Stadttheater Bremerhaven , DE
Theatre Trier, DE
Pfalztheate, Kaiserslautern, DE
Nikolaisaal Potsdam, DE
Grand Theatre, Łódź, PL
Nederland Dans Theater, NL
Reisopera, NL
Korzo Theater, NL
Norrdans, SE
Norrlands Operan Umeå, SE
Compañía Nacional de Danza SP
Les Grands Ballets Canadiens de Montréal, CA
National Dance Company Wales, UK
The New National Ballet of Japan, JP
NOISM, JP
St. Petersburg Theatre of Musical Comedy, RU
Astana Opera, Astana ,KZ
Uzbek National Ballet / Bolshoi Theatre named after Alisher Navoi, UZ
Hook Dance Theatre, HK
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My ideas often come from materials that can be natural or industrial.
I observe the material to discover unique characters. I consider how the material could turn into shapes.
Then I must figure out the best way to visualise these unique characters.
Another material is light.
Light is not only to make objects visible but it becomes a material itself.
However, light always needs another material to be visible.
The combination of light and other materials brings me various characters of visibility.
Light controls the perception of the eyes, where something becomes visible, arises, and where not visible, invisibility and the imaginary arise.
I must see not only the objects themselves but also the spaces that complete their atmosphere and the environment.
Transforming the original space into another world is almost like creating an illusion.
The use of theatre technologies offers many opportunities for movement.
The theatre perspective focuses on one direction towards the viewer.
For other spaces, however, it offers more choices of interactivity and accessibility.
I have to imagine the flow of movement of the viewers because they perceive the space from different directions.
I don't use languages or concrete objects that remind us of existing images.
Space must be poetic that give the public fantasies.