Vita
	Erika Matsunami was born in Hiroshima (Japan) and studied Japanese traditional dance with Fuhima-Ryu (Mistress Fujima Toshika) and later with Mistress Hanayagi Masatoyo(花柳　雅豊) – Hnayagi-Ryu(Japanese traditional dance association). She adopted the artist’s name „Hanayagi Hosenyu“(花柳 　豊仙遊) in 1984. From 1982-84, she studied sculpture under sculptor Professor Hisashi Akutagawa et al. at the Hijiyama University (Hiroshima, Japan), where she worked as a research associate (advanced courses) in sculpture from 1984-1986 under sculptor Professor Hisashi Akutagawa, sculptor Professor Masanami Yhoshida and sculptor Professor Hideki Okuda. During this time she was a member of Shinseisaku kyokai Hiroshima, an artists' union of fine art in the section of sculpture. Matsunami studied German at the University of Vienna and from 1992 to 1995 the Department of Fine Art, postgraduate course (Kulturpädagogische Arbeitsstelle für Weiterbildung/Institute of Art in Context) at the Berlin University of the Arts/UdK Berlin (Universität der Künste Berlin) and she completed this fine art studies at the Institute of Art in Context in 1997 under the supervision of Katharina Jedermann und Wolfgang Knapp. She then worked in the area of photography with Paris-based photographer Thomas Dorn. Erika Matsunami works in the areas of performance, video and sound art, photography and mixed-media installations. She has been a member of GEDOK (alliance of woman artists’ associations) in Germany since 2008, and a member of berlinerpool (contemporary art archive/plattform for berliner artists and curators) in Berlin since 2009. Since 2000, she has been producing and developing experimental videos and visual performances. From 2000 to 2004, she was actively involved in work on the “Thikwa” theatre project in Berlin. Matsunami has been involved in countless projects, exhibitions, dance/movement performances and festivals at the Künstlerbahnhof Westend (Karl-Hofer Society/UdK, Berlin), the British National Film Theatre (BFI Southbank, London), Finnish National Gallery (Helsinki) and the Martin-Gropius-Bau (Berlin), to name but a few examples. She has also been involved in OIO since December 2006, an artistic collaborative endeavour with the Greek composer and pianist Antonis Anissegos. Projects in recent years include “„deflection – rasenjo no jikan”, a performance and audiovisual installation at the Kyoto Art Centre (Japan, 2005), the experimental video “deflection” (2005) at the Experimental Video Film Festival EXIS 06 (Seoul), Media Art Festival (Friesland, NL), 20th Instans Video Festival (Marseille, FR) and transmediale 07 (Berlin), as well as the audiovisual improvisation „session“ (2007) at B-Flat (Berlin) and Gesellschaft/Ort e.V. (Wuppertal). OIO cooperated with Japanese artist Kyota Takahashi on the “trans+ O” project in 2007 and has continually worked on a project by the name of “still/silent” at the following exhibitions and festivals: GlogauAIR (Berlin), Haus der Kulturen der Welt (Berlin), Arttransponder (Berlin, 2007), Espai Niu/Hangar (Barcelona, 2008), Palazzo Pesaro Papafava (Venice, 2009) and the Experimental Video & Film Festival EXiS (Seoul, 2009). Parts of Matsunami’s project “B.O.D.Y.” (2000-2009), a video, performance, photography and mixed media installation, have been shown at the exhibitions “unbeschreiblich weiblich” (indescribably feminine) at the art forum of GEDOK in Hamburg and “o.T. Wer die Wahl hat” at the Verborgenes Museum in Berlin (2009). The “B.O.D.Y.” (2000–2010) project can be seen at the exhibition for GEDOK Berlin’s 50th anniversary, “Positionen 1960 – 2010. 50 Jahre GEDOK Berlin”, curated by Dr Birgit Möcke and running from 22 October to 28 November 2010 at the Kunstraum Bethanien in Berlin. From 2009 to 2010, Erika Matsunami was a guest student under Professor Dr Martin Supper, composer, scientist and study programme director of the postgraduate course in Sound Studies – Acoustic Communications at the ZIW of the UdK Berlin and head of the UNI.K-Studio for Sound Art and Sound Research the Department of Music at the Berlin University of the Arts/UdK Berlin (Universität der Künste Berlin). She lives and works in Berlin.