Suchan Kinoshita (° 1960) was born in Tokyo in a Japanese-German family. In the early eighties she studies music in Cologne with Marizio Kagel as one of her teachers. During the 1980s, Kinoshita also works at the Theater am Marienplatz in Krefeld, Germany, where she acts, directs and makes theatre props. After studying at the Jan van Eyck Academy in Maastricht, the Netherlands, she emerged as a visual artist in the early nineties, and developed her career in Maastricht where she is teaching at the Jan van Eyck academy until 2003. From 2006 she is teaching at the academy in Münster, and moved recently to Brussels where she feels more connected to the artworld today.
Kinoshita's art incorporates elements from her background in experimental music and theatre, including in particular the direct connection between work and audience. Kinoshita's oeuvre reveals itself in time through dynamic processes in which the personal relationship between viewer and artwork gets into shape. The here and now of the performance is important to her. She avoids static presentations and representations. This will only distract attention.
The fact that Kinoshita grows up between two cultures and has been trained in various artistic disciplines is reflected in her work that pushes boundaries, crosses them or just ignores them. The experience of time and space is often thematic. On the one hand it is important that these concepts are experienced differently in the two cultures in which it is rooted. On the other hand it combines the way in which time and space are used and portrayed within the disciplines of theatre, music and visual arts. She incorporates the process-related aspects of theatre and music into the visual arts, and by doing this, reveals them from the static nature that is often connected to the visual arts.
Significant solo exhibitions were presented at, White Cube, London 1996, Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach, 1999, MuHKA, Antwerp, 2002, The New Museum, New York, 2004, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, 2006, Museum Ludwig, Cologne, 2010, MUDAM, Luxembourg, 2011, Ludlow 38 New York, 2014, Kanal Pompidou Bruxelles 2019
Further international presence was generated through the participation in the 4th Biennale of Istanbul (1995), Manifesta 1, Rotterdam (1996), the 11th Biennale of Sydney (1998), Carnegie International, Pittsburg (1999), the 8th Sharjah Biennial (2007), Skulptur Projekte Münster (2007), the 7th Biennale of Shanghai (2008), and the 5th and 6th Moscow Biennale (2013/2015).
Other durational partnerships were realised with “If I can’t dance I don’t want to be part of your Revolution” Amsterdam (2008-2009) and Playground Festival/STUK museum M, Leuven (2008, 2016, and 2019)