Ayumi Ooshio

Born 1986 in Shizuoka Prefecture. She runs Ayumi shokudo a “traveling kitchen” that provides catering at events, shows and other occasions. She also creates many made-to-order recipes that are customized to each eater, eating environment and background concept. Through formulating a fun and delicious eating experience using seasonal food ingredients, she aspires to connect the Japanese producers of these ingredients with those who eat them. She has authored Ayumi Shokudo no Obento: 23-nin no Tegami kara Umareta Reshipi (“Bentos of Ayumi Shokudo: Recipes Born from 23 Letters”; pub. Bunka Publishing Bureau), a compilation of the two-year series featured on Asahi Shimbun Digital & w, which is also presented at this exhibition.

Hiraku Ogura

Born 1983 in Tokyo. Ogura is a self-styled “fermentation designer” whose mission is to show the imperceptible workings of fermenting bacteria through design. His activities include developing products in collaboration with fermenters around Japan, creating picturebooks and animations, and hosting workshops. After studying zymology (science of fermenting) as a research student at the Tokyo University of Agriculture, he set up a fermentation lab on a mountain in Koshu, Yamanashi Prefecture, where he has been cultivating bacteria and exploring the world of microbes ever since. He received the Good Design Award in 2014 for the animation How to Make Miso. He has recently published Hakko Bunka Jinruigaku (“The Anthropology of Fermentation Culture”; pub. Kirakusha).

Jun Kitazawa

Born 1988 in Tokyo. Kitazawa is an artist who helms the Jun Kitazawa Office Yakumo. His first project was staged in 2007 aboard the Okesamaru, a cruise ship that connects Niigata and Sado Island. He has since been involved with around 30 regions at home and abroad, collaborating with diverse people through mid- to long-term fieldwork. His practice involves “community-specific” art projects that create within the community a place to reexamine everyday life. From 2016 to 2017, he stayed in Indonesia for a year on the Japan Foundation Asia Center’s fellowship program. Since then, he has pursued his artistic practice while traveling back and forth between the two countries. He holds a Ph.D. in Fine Arts from the Tokyo University of the Arts. He was selected by Forbes magazine as one of the “30 Under 30 Asia 2016” in the Arts category.

Toru Koyamada

Born 1961 in Kagoshima Prefecture, Koyamada studied nihonga (Japanese-style painting) at Kyoto City University of Arts. In parallel with his activities with Dumb Type, an artist group he co-founded in 1984 while at university, Koyamada began in the 1990s to develop various communal spaces, setting up among others the community centers Artscape and Weekend Cafe. In recent years, he has been involved in community restoration in Onagawa, Miyagi Prefecture – an area struck by the 2011 Tohoku earthquake and tsunami – as a member of the “Dialogue & Work Shop” which he formed in the town with architects and residents. He is a professor at the Kyoto City University of Arts.

Taro Hirano

Born 1973; graduated from Musashino Art University. Hirano has worked as a freelance photographer since 2000. With the skateboarding culture as his basis, he contributes photographs to cultural magazines, fashion magazines, advertising and other outlets. His publications include POOL (pub. Little More), barabara (co-authored with Gen Hoshino; pub. Little More), Tokyo no Shigotoba (“Tokyo’s Workplaces”; pub. Magazine House), the photo-essay Boku to Senpai (“Me and Senpai”; pub. Shobunsha), Los Angeles Car Club (self-published), and The Kings (ELVIS PRESS). Since 2004, he has been the director of the No.12 GALLERY in Shibuya, Tokyo.

Marije Vogelzang

Born 1978 in Enschede, The Netherlands. She graduated from Design Academy Eindhoven in 2000. In 2004, she set up the experimental restaurant Proef in Rotterdam, selling off the business in 2011 to focus on her design work. A pioneer of “eating design,” her activities range from developing restaurant concepts to proposing new eating-related design in areas such as medical care and education. In 2014, she became head of the Food Non Food Department at Design Academy Eindhoven. She held her first solo exhibition in Japan, eating + design: what design can do 2 at AXIS Gallery in 2008, and held a workshop in 2014 as part of Roppongi Art Night.