Media Release
5 July 2011
Shigeyuki Kihara embarks on German Samoa relations
Apia and Auckland-based international artist and independent curator Shigeyuki Kihara will commence her research into the shared history between Germany and Samoa courtesy of the Visitor Program funded by the Goethe-Institute New Zealand. She will be Artist-In-Residence at MATCHPOINT, an initiative of the Theater Hebbel am Ufer, Berlin, Germany from August to October 2011.
Theatre Hebbel am Ufer (HAU) is one of the leading theatre institutions for contemporary dance, theatre and performance in Europe presenting regularly critically engaging works by important artists including Richard Maxwell, Anne Teresa de Keersmaeker and William Forsythe. During her time in Germany, Samoan-born artist Shigeyuki Kihara will be researching the shared history between Germany and Samoa, particularly through its forgotten colonial legacy.
Kihara will be investigating the historical archives held in various ethnological museums and meeting with key scholars from institutions including Ethnologisches Museum (Berlin); Linden Museum (Stuttgart); Museum für Völkerkunde (Hamburg) and Weltkuturen Museum (Frankfurt) before presenting the progress of her research in relation to her own art practice as part of the Asian-Pacific weeks 2011 event held at Theatre Hebbel am Ufer.
Kihara’s presentation entitled ‘Weaving and Unweaving His/her/tories’ on 11th September coincides with Kihara’s residency as guest lecturer and mentor at MATCHPOINT, an international exchange programme for young dance choreographers taking place during the festival ‘Leaving the Comfort Zone’, a programme of the Asian-Pacific weeks 2011. “We are honoured to have Shigeyuki Kihara taking part in the programme in various forms”, said Anna Wagner, curator of ‘Leaving the Comfort Zone’ at Theatre Hebbel am Ufer.
Since her solo exhibition at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA in 2008 Kihara’s public performance work Talanoa: Walk the Talk VI has been commissioned and featured in The 4th Auckland Triennial Last Ride in a Hot Air Balloon in 2010. Other recent curatorial projects have included the BRING YOUR GAME Hip Hop Summit commissioned by Campbelltown Arts Centre as part of the 2011 Sydney Festival, Australia.
Closer to home, Kihara’s performance video work Taualuga: The Last Dance (2006) is part of the current exhibition Presence: New Acquisitions and Works from the Collection at the Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Plymouth, showing until 28 August 2011. Kihara’s work is also included in the upcoming exhibition ‘Oceania’ – a landmark collaborative project between Te Papa Tongarewa Museum of New Zealand and City Gallery Wellington opening 6th August till 6th November 2011.
