LIFE–WELL

Ryuichi Sakamoto made his debut in 1978 with the album "The Thousand Knives" as well as joining the internationally acclaimed, YMO (Yellow Magic Orchestra). After YMO broke up (the band officially called it 'spread-out'), he composed the music score for many feature films. While he gained worldwide stature by winning the Academy Award as a composer, he has always pursued innovative music and sounds. In 2006 he established "commmons", aimed at the creation of a new music community. He is always casting about for new forms for delivering music. Following his 1999 opera "LIFE", Sakamoto became outspoken on the issues of the environment, peace, and social issues. In reaction to the simultaneous terrorist attacks of 9/11, he edited an anthology Hisen (Non-war). That same year he founded "artists' power", an artists' organization that advocates the encouragement and use of renewable energy. After the devastating earthquake, tsunami, and Fukushima nuclear power plants disasters of March 11, 2011, Sakamoto along with Tomoyasu Hirano founded kizunaworld.org. "kizunaworld" aims to empower individuals to get involved with helping afflicted people through donations without aligning with any agency or organization. As a gift for the donations, donators are able to download exclusive material from a diverse cast of prominent artists, with more being continuously added. Ryuichi Sakamoto resides in New York City.

Born in 1963, Takatani is one of the founding member of the artist collective Dumb Type, which was established in 1984. Besides Dumb Type, Takatani began a parallel solo career in 1998. In his solo activities, Takatani’s works were presented, among others, Festival de Marseille, New National Theatre Tokyo, National Theater & Concert Hall Taipei, Centre Pompidou-Metz France, Sharjah Biennial UAE. His first retrospective solo exhibition, Camera Lucida, was held at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum in 2013. He also worked in collaboration with diverse artists such as Fujiko Nakaya, Mansai Nomura, Raku Kichizaemon XV, among others. The latest theater piece by Ryuichi Sakamoto + Shiro Takatani, TIME was premiered at Holland Festival in June 2021. Dumb Type is the Japan Pavilion Artist at the 59th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia in 2022.