Miho Iwata (born 1962 in

Ichinomiya, Aichi is a city located in Aichi Prefecture, Japan. The city is sometimes called Owarichinomiya to avoid confusion with other municipalities of the same name, including Ichinomiya (now part of the city of Toyokawa), Ichinomiya in Chiba Prefecture. ...

, Japan) is a

performance artist Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

, scenographer and

choreographer Choreography is the art or practice of designing sequences of movements of physical bodies (or their depictions) in which motion or form or both are specified. ''Choreography'' may also refer to the design itself. A choreographer is one who cr ...

. In 1986 she emigrated to

Kraków Kraków (), or Cracow, is the second-largest and one of the oldest cities in Poland. Situated on the Vistula River in Lesser Poland Voivodeship, the city dates back to the seventh century. Kraków was the official capital of Poland until 159 ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, , is a country in Central Europe. Poland is divided into Voivodeships of Poland, sixteen voivodeships and is the fifth most populous member state of the European Union (EU), with over 38 mill ...

, where she lives and works. Her work is performed at theater and arts festivals throughout Poland and abroad.

Education and early career

She received a degree in architecture at

Kyoto Prefectural University , or for short, is one of the public universities in Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea ...

and studied Polish

philology Philology () is the study of language in oral and written historical sources; it is the intersection of textual criticism, literary criticism, history, and linguistics (with especially strong ties to etymology). Philology is also defined as ...

at Jagiellonian University in Kraków. In 1991 she was first introduced to butoh dance in Poland through the work of Daisuke Yoshimoto, Kazuo Ohno and Min Tanaka.

Artistic work

Her first Kraków performance was the piece ''Legs of pigeon'' presented at the Krzysztofory Gallery in Kraków in 1994. It was represented in 1995 at the Flying Art Festival at an abandoned factory in Solvay. This event was also the first large scale rave in Kraków. She followed this with the scenic works ''Granat'', in 1996 ''The moon and fish neck'' in 1998, both at the Krzysztofory gallery. In 2001 she premiered ''Utsusemi'' at the Festival Rozdroze, in the Ujazdowski Castle Contemporary Art Centre in

Warsaw Warsaw ( pl, Warszawa, ), officially the Capital City of Warsaw,, abbreviation: ''m.st. Warszawa'' is the capital and largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the River Vistula in east-central Poland, and its population is official ...

. In 2002 Iwata began collaborating on a series of

improvisation Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...

al work. She starting working with musicians as an Improviser's Ensemble called Improvising Artists. She also continued working as a solo artist with the performance ''Thousands of Dream'' at Otwarta Pracownia gallery in Kraków. ''Thousands of Dream'' is silent improvised piece without the addition of theatrical lighting or sound, using only the blank gallery space and atmosphere. She also creates performance works for art exhibitions including Marek Chlanda's sculptures, group Rdzen's installation with living cooks and ducks at the Zacheta Gallery,a Pirko Schroder's video installation, Thomas May's installation with grass, and Robakowski's video work. Iwata has also been featured in the animated films ''Sea Swallow Me'' directed by Katarzyna Kifert and ''Triptych Part 3'' by Piotr Jakubowicz. She also participated in Maciej Wałczak's multimedia live project at GPS4 in 2003.

Festivals and galleries

Iwata's work has been featured at various festivals and galleries including Ujazdowski Castle Contemporary Art Centre, the Zachęta Gallery in

, the Krzysztofory Gallery, Otwarta Pracownia, Bunkier Sztuki-Cracow Contemporary Art Gallery, and the Solvay Contemporary Art Centre in Kraków. Also, her work has been seen at the BWA Gallery in

Lublin Lublin is the ninth-largest city in Poland and the second-largest city of historical Lesser Poland. It is the capital and the center of Lublin Voivodeship with a population of 336,339 (December 2021). Lublin is the largest Polish city east of ...

, the Manhattan Gallery in

Łódź Łódź, also rendered in English as Lodz, is a city in central Poland and a former industrial centre. It is the capital of Łódź Voivodeship, and is located approximately south-west of Warsaw. The city's coat of arms is an example of cant ...

, and the Arsenal Gallery in

Białystok Białystok is the largest city in northeastern Poland and the capital of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. It is the tenth-largest city in Poland, second in terms of population density, and thirteenth in area. Białystok is located in the Białystok Up ...

. She is a member of the artists’ groups ''Otwarta Pracownia'' and ''Improvising Artists''. Documentation of the work of these groups are in the collection of ''Sygnal od Time /Znaki Czasu'' in the Małopolska Region, Kraków.

Recent work

In 2004 Iwata collaborated on a series of performances with musicians as , including ''In Aut'' and ''In Dua'', ''Spring'', a duet with Marzena Lis on piano performed in Willa Decjusz and the

multimedia art Multimedia is a form of communication that uses a combination of different content forms such as text, audio, images, animations, or video into a single interactive presentation, in contrast to tradition ...

project ''Kraków-Lipowa 4'' in

Oskar Schindler Oskar Schindler (; 28 April 1908 – 9 October 1974) was a German industrialist, humanitarian and a member of the Nazi Party who is credited with saving the lives of 1,200 Jews during the Holocaust by employing them in his enamelware and amm ...

's former factory accompanied by a full band. She also created a duet entitled ''Home'' with T. Choloniewski as a part of the ''Home Atmosphere'' project in Archemia, Kraków. In 2006 she was invited to perform in Tetsuo Furudate's ''DADAyama'' project to Berlin as part of

Deutschlandradio Deutschlandradio (DLR) (''Radio Germany'') is a national German public radio broadcaster. History ''Deutschlandfunk'' was originally a West German news radio targeting listeners within West Germany as well as in neighbouring countries, ''Deuts ...

's celebration of 90 years of

Dada Dada () or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century, with early centres in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (Zurich), Cabaret Voltaire (in 1916). New York Dada began c. 1915, and after 192 ...

, which was broadcast over

European Broadcasting Union The European Broadcasting Union (EBU; french: Union européenne de radio-télévision, links=no, UER) is an alliance of public service media organisations whose countries are within the European Broadcasting Area or who are members of the Co ...

radio. In that same year, ''Thousands of a Dream'' was presented at Gallery ZERO in Berlin, Germany. She is working on projects as the artist in residence at Kyoto Art Center, Japan. In September 2006 she was to take part in Polish Sound Art, a two-week arts festival in various cities in China.

References

External links

Otwarta PracowniaDeutschlandradio Kultur - Art’s Birthdaygaleria ZEROdomowa atomosfera
{{DEFAULTSORT:Iwata, Miho Polish contemporary artists 1962 births Living people Polish performance artists Japanese performance artists