エレナ・トゥタッチコワ / Elena Tutatchikova

Born in Moscow, Russia, 1984. After studying classical music and Japanese literature in Moscow, Tutatchikova moved to Japan in 2012, where she finished her Masters degree in Intermedia Art at Tokyo University of the Arts.
In 2016, she published her first artist book “After an Apple Falls From the Tree, There is a Sound” (torch press, Tokyo). Her latest solo shows include “The Path Across the Peninsula” (several venues at Shiretoko peninsula, Hokkaido, Japan, 2018), “In Summer: Apples, Fossils and the Book” (POST, Tokyo, Japan, 2016). In 2016, she participated in Kenpoku Art (Ibaraki, Japan), where she presented an installation focused on the region’s forestry industry. For the last five years she has been working on a long-term project at Shiretoko peninsula located in the easternmost part of north Japan. Currently Tutatchikova lives and works in Kyoto, where she began the Kamogawa Fieldwork Laboratory, an anthropological and artistic research project on Kyoto via the city’s water infrastructure.

Education
2015-Now
Tokyo University of the Arts, Department of Intermedia Art, Doctoral Program
2013-15
MFA, Tokyo University of the Arts, Department of Intermedia Art
2005-2011
Russian State University for the Humanities (Moscow), Institute for Oriental and Classical Studies
1992-2003
Central Music School of the Moscow State Conservatory

Awards
Grand Prix at Akarenga Portfolio Audition, Higashikawa International Photo Festival, 2014

Solo exhibitions
“The Path Across the Peninsula” (several venues at Shiretoko peninsula, Hokkaido, Japan, 2018)
“With Ice, Comes New Sun” NOMA t.d. (Tokyo, Japan, 2018)
“On Teto’s Trail” Gallery TRAX (Yamanashi, Japan, 2017)
“Hour of the Sheep, North Wind, Sunny” STUDIO STAFF ONLY (Tokyo, Japan, 2017)
“With My Dinosaurs” kumagusuku (Kyoto, Japan, 2017)
“In Summer: Apples, Fossils and the Book” BOOK MARUTE, (Takamatsu, Japan, 2017)
“In Summer: Apples, Fossils and the Book” POST (Tokyo, Japan, 2016)
“In Summer, With My Dinosaurs” nani (Tokyo, Japan, 2016)
“To the Northern Shores” Tokyo Month of Photography, MUSÉE F (Tokyo, Japan, 2015)
「After an Apple Falls From the Tree, There is a Sound」 POETIC SCAPE（東京、2015）
etc.

Group exhibitions
“In the Beginning, Silence was Always Silence” Takuro Someya Contemporary Art (Tokyo, Japan, 2015)
Higashikawa International Photo Festival (Higashikawa, Hokkaido, Japan, 2015)

Festivals
KENPOKU ART (Ibaraki, Japan, 2016)

In my work, I am interested in the connection between imagination, walking and storytelling, and in the relationship between nature and man across different regions. Fieldwork is an important part of my practice. With the help of the local people, I try to approach the land in its complicity, as a source of history, language, imagination and thought. The resulting work comes in form of installations, which incorporate photography, video, sound, text and drawings.
As a way of collaboration with local people, and as a way of artistic expression, I explore walking. Through various artistic practices and physical interactions with the landscape, we do not only become more knowledgeable, but can also find our way to live in the ever-changing world. Maybe this connection with the land is what makes us human.