Tomotosi Artist and Director of TOMO City Museum Born 1983, Yamaguchi, Japan Lives and works in Tokyo Contact: tomo.museum@gmail.com
Educational Background 2019-2021 RAM Association: Research for Arts and Media-project, Tokyo 2019 Image Forum Institute of the Moving Image, Tokyo 2016 Genron Chaos*Lounge New Art School, Tokyo 2006 Bachelor of Science in Architectural Engineering, Toyohashi University of Technology, Aichi
Awards 2020 DailyPortalZ Rookie of the Year award 2020, Second Prize 2019 WIRED CREATIVE HACK AWARD 2019, Second Prize 2019 Image Forum Festival 2019, Audience Award 2014 Kitakyushu Digital Creator Contest 2014, Selected
Selected Solo Shows 2025 Tomotosi: Prácticas invisibles de ciudadanía, Box Levante de Alcultura, Algeciras, Spain 2024 Residency Output “NOW CALIBRATING…”, Orange Peel Studio 2, Bacolod 2024 Hungry Condo, Token Art Center, Tokyo 2023 Desperate Delay Plan, TAV GALLERY, Tokyo 2022 Romantic Bomb, TAV GALLERY, Tokyo 2021 The Missing Sun, TOH, Tokyo 2020 Hernia City, TOMO City Museum, Tokyo 2019 Aerobic Nampa, The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama 2018 tttv, chuohonsengarou, Tokyo 2014 Look at Me Closer, Gallery SPACEKIDS, Tokyo
Selected Group Shows 2026 Asia, The Apparatus, National Asian Culture Center, Gwangju 2025 VIVA ExCon Aklan 2025, Aklan Trekkers Advocacy Hub, Aklan 2025NEW Days, Art Center NEW, Yokohama 2025 A Story of Speed,Zuiun-an, Kyoto 2024 BUG School 2024 : Feeling Cities with Wild Sense, BUG, Tokyo 2024 LakesideSpecific!, Ichihara Lakeside Museum, Chiba 2023 ATAMI ART GRANT 2023, Shizuoka 2022 Spiral River, Tokyo 2022 HAM 2022, Tsukuba, Ibaraki 2022 ROKKO MEETS ART 2022, Rokko Mountain, Kobe 2021 Stilllive: Performance Art Summit Tokyo 2021-2022, Goethe-Institut, Tokyo 2021 Koganecho Bazaar 2021, Kanagawa 2021 4面鏡 (Yon-Men Kyou) / Quad Mirror, PARCEL, Tokyo 2021 Ripple across the Water 2021, Watari-um, The Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo 2019 Aichi Triennale 2019, Aichi 2017 #long-distance relationship, nogata-no-kuhaku, Tokyo
Selected Screenings 2026 Safe Room Screening Program, Museum of Contemporary Art, Taipei 2024 Screening #7, Foyer42, Basel 2021 Experimental Film & Video Festival in Seoul, indiespace, Seoul 2021 Moscow International Experimental Film Festival, The Garage Screen, Moscow 2020 Tokyo Documentary Film Festival 2020, K’s cinema, Tokyo 2020 ULTRA VIEWING vol. 2 tomotosi,MUJIN-TO production, Tokyo 2019 Thai Short Film & Video Festival, Bangkok 2019 Image Forum Festival 2019, Tokyo, Nagoya and Kyoto
Selected Curatorial Projects 2020-Current Workshop series Ask the City, TOMO City Museum, Tokyo 2020 Good Bye Platanus, by SHIMOOSAWA Shun, TOMO City Museum, Tokyo
Teaching 2023 Guest lecturer for Bigakko 2021 Guest lecturer for Image Forum Institute of the Moving Image 2021 Guest lecturer for Japan Institute of the Moving Image
Residency 2024 Orange Project, Bacolod, The Philippines *Supported by The Japan Foundation Manila, TRA-TRAVEL 2021 Koganecho Bazaar 2021, Kanagawa
Public collection The Museum of Modern Art, Saitama
Statement During his many years working in architectural design and urban development, Tomotosi closely observed how urban structures and rules dictate human behavior. This interest remains at the core of his current practice, though he now engages with the city through an approach exactly opposite to his time as a designer. As an artist, he explores ways to physically intervene in the city through his own body. In his video and performance works, he slips into the gaps of the “choreography that the city imposes on its users,” aiming to create temporary disruptions in people’s behavior. In a parallel series of collaborative workshops, he intentionally sets eccentric rules for walking the streets, creating moments where participants can re-examine everyday landscapes from an unfamiliar vantage point.