Suchan Kinoshita
born 1960, Tokyo, Japan
lives and works in Brussels, Belgium
Kinoshita’s art incorporates elements from her background in experimental music and theatre. She studied music in Cologne and worked as actor, director and designer for the Theater am Marienplatz in Krefeld, Germany before her studies at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht, the Netherlands.
Kinoshita’s mixed background (she was born in Tokyo into a Japanese-German family) and her experience in multiple artistic disciplines are clearly visible in her work, in which she looks for boundaries, transgresses them, and ignores them. Important here are both the different conceptions of time and space in the two cultures in which she is rooted, as well as the different ways in which these parts are employed and depicted in the disciplines of theatre, music and visual art.
‘The notion of being an artist is so loaded with meaning, says Suchan Kinoshita, – we’re sort of pretentious in a way. I prefer this notion of the musician, the worker, or the dancer. Being perhaps the director or the creator of the piece, but also the player.’ In fact, she also wants to ‘move the role of the public into a player,’ and vice versa. In her installations, she uses superimposition or the interplay between live-transmission, film projection, and framed realities, to experiment with different levels of reality.
Kinoshita was the winner of the Prix de Rome in 1992. Her work has been regularly exhibited since the 1980s. It has been the subject of several solo exhibitions, including ‘In 10 minutes’ at the Museum Ludwig, Cologne (2010). Kinoshita has also taken part in the Skulptur Projekte Münster (2007), and in Biennales in Istanbul (1995), Sydney (1998), Shanghai (2008) and Moscow (2013). Other solo exhibitions include MUDAM, Luxembourg (2011), Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven (2007), the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York (2004), SMAK Gent (1998).
Most recently she exhibited at the Westfällischer Kunstverein in Münster (2022). Her work is in many international public and private collections. In 2022, her installation ‘Da Capo’ was acquired by Museum Boijmans van Beuningen in Rotterdam for their permanent collection.
Teaching at the Fine Art Academy in Muenster, Germany
Advising researcher at Postgraduate programme, Jan van Eyck Academy, Maastricht
International Studio Programme, PS 1 New York
Prix de Rome prize, Amsterdam
Postgraduate studio program, Jan van Eyck Academy, Maastricht
Performer and director at TAM in Krefeld. Theater am Marienplatz
Rhythmics and contemporary music theatre studies at Music Academy Cologne
Architectoral Psychodramas, Westfälischer Kunstverein, Münster, Germany
Operating Theatre, Institute de Carton vzw, Brussels, Belgium
Taking Place, Hidde van Seggelen Gallery, London, England
Tokonoma, Gallerie Nadia Vilenne, Liege, Belgium
Stick Empathy, MUDAM, Luxembourg
The Right Moment at the Wrong Place/The Right Place at the Wrong Moment, Museum De Paviljoens, Haarlem, The Netherlands
Bloomberg Disco, Bloomberg gallery, London, UK
In 10 Minuten, Ludwig Museum Cologne, Germany
Carrière d’ un Spectateur, gallérie Nadja Vilenne, Liege, Belgium
The Fragment in Itself, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, UK
aber auch dann fehlt ein Fehler, Kunstvereniging Diepenheim, Diepenheim, The Netherlands
Luidspreker, Plug In#14, Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Instrumentarium, i.o.v. SKOR (Stichting Kunst en Openbare Ruimte), Zutphen, The Netherlands
Adaptive Behaviour, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York, US
Archive of Problems, Marres, Maastricht, The Netherlands
Eerste huwelijk, MuHKA, Antwerpen, Belgium
Het moet dinsdag ochtend zijn geweest, Ellen de Bruijne Projects, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
0031-43-3438746, Shiseido Gallery, Tokyo (cat.), Japan
Parallele oder Hannah wie mann sie auch nennt, Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, Germany
It’s here and there and never always, Chisenhale Gallery, London, UK
Observatoire, SMAK, Gent (cat.), Belgium
Voorstelling, Stedelijk van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Stuff, White Cube, London, UK
Stof, De Vleeshal, Middelburg, The Netherlands
Freedom – The Fifty Key Dutch Artworks Since 1968, Museum de Fundatie, Zwolle, The Netherlands
Behind the curtain. Concealment and Revelation since the Renaissance. From Titian to Christo, Museum Kunstpalats, Düsseldorf, Germany
Tokonoma dans From A to K, Museum M, Leuven, Belgium
Art Brussels 2016, Galerie Nadja Vilenne, Brussels, Belgium
See how the land lays, West in Huis Huguetan, Den Haag, The Netherlands
6th Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art, Pavilion No.1 in Moscow’s VDNKh, Russia
OO Inflatables, Robert Miller Gallery, New York City, USA
“Tokonoma with Olivier Foulon, Joerg Franzbecker, Kris Kimpe, Suchan Kinoshita, Aglaia Konrad, Willem Oorebeek, Eran Schaerf”, MINI / Goethe Institute, New York, USA
Beating Around the Bush Episode #1, Bonnefantenmuseum Maastricht, The Netherlands
Magicgruppe Kulturobjekt , Extra City Center for Contemporary Art, Antwerp, Belgium
Suchkino, Dance with the Camera, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Beyond Imagination, Stedeljik Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Stages, IICD, Van Abbe Museum Eindhoven, The Netherlands
Ein Performanceprojekt, KUB Arena of Kunsthaus Bregenz, Bregenz, Austria
Dialemma, impossible community, Moscow Museum, MMOMA, Russia
Detour for 5 Singers, sala rekalde, Bilbao, Spain
GAGARIN The Artists in their Own Words, Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst (SMAK), Gent, Belgium
Jeugdzonde. Over opus één en opus min één, Hedah, Maastricht, The Netherlands
Site of Silence, Ausstellungshalle zeitgenössische Kunst Münster (AZKM), Münster, Germany
If I Can’t Dance, I Don’t Want To Be Part Of Your Revolution, Project Arts Centre, Dublin, UK
All that is solid melts into air, Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst, Antwerpen, Belgium
Are there Six, 7th Shanghai Biennial, China
behind the curtain, IICD, DE Appel, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
I, Live Art Festival 2008, STUK Arts Centre, Leuven, Belgium
chinese whispers, Sculpture Projects Muenster 07, Munster, Germany
Art Forum Berlin 07, galerie nadjavilenne, Berlin, Germany
Rondreizend afval, Museumtijdschrift, by Claudine Hellweg, July-August
Citizens and Subjects; The Netherlands, for example: A Critical Reader, ed. by R. Braidotti, C. Esche, M. Hlavajova, BAK, Utrecht, JRP/Ringier, Zurich
Wijzigingen voorbehouden, Eerste huwelijk, MuHKA, Elsbeth Veldpape, Museumtijdschrift, december 2002/january 2003
Suchan Kinoshita, Shiseido Gallery Introducing Japanese Artists Living Abroad, Shiseido Corporate Culture Department, Tokyo
Parallele oder Hannah, wie man Sie auch nennt, Stadtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach
Suchan Kinoshita S.M.A.K, Flash Art 32, no. 204, January/February
Meaning is Moist, S.M.A.K./Chisenhale Gallery, Gent/London
Winner, Fine Arts Prize of Das Kuratorium der Kunststoffindustrie, DE
Winner, Prix de Rome, IT
Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, NL, Bonnefanten Museum, Maastricht, NL, De Vleeshal, Middelburg, NL, Museum het Domein, Sittard, NL, Chisenhale Gallery, Londen, UK, Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, DE, Musée d’Art Contemporain Lyon, Lyon, FR, MuHKA Museum voor Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen, Antwerpen, BE, SMAK Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Gent, BE