Biography
Italian-Japanese performer and choreographer, Masako Matsushita creates worlds and atmospheres to explore the presence of the body in time and space. By connecting cultures and aesthetics with her way of constructing structures, her works become moving paintings.
She has been an artist-in-residence in Europe and overseas including; Residency Unlimited (NY), Centro Arti Visive Pescheria Pesaro (IT), Erkki Hirvela Atelier Jämsä, PimOff Milan, CSC Garage Nardini, Teatro Sperimentale Pesaro amongst others. Masako presents her own works and has worked in collaboration with other artists in festivals including CivitanovaDanza 2.0 IT, Revnedans e Sånafest (NO), Drodesera35° Motherlode (IT), 16° Quadriennale d’Arte di Roma (IT), Kilowatt Festival (IT), The Erotic Cloth (UK), Swallowsfeet (UK), Neu/Now (NL), ITS (NL), Festival Ammutinamenti (IT), B-motion (IT), Haut Festival (DK).
Masako has choreographed works for venues and site-specific places such LAND SKAP vol.1/vol.2, in collaboration with Ingvild Isaksen, which was produced by Sånafest Festival with the support of DE.MO./Movin’UP II session 2016 and promoted by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage and Activities and Tourism and GAI – Association for the Touring of Young Artists; TaikokiaT Shinodō (2017) and MONSONE (2019).
She was selected for the New Italian Dance Platform 2019 with UN/DRESS, and the piece has also received academic interest. Barbara Brownie writes about it in Acts of Undressing Politics, Erotism and Discarded Clothing (2016), and Lesley Millar and Alice Kettle in The Erotic Cloth: Seduction and Fetishism in Textile (2018), both books published by Bloomsbury.
Currently, Masako is involved in two international projects; Dancing Museum 2-The Democracy of Being –supported by the CSC (Centro per la Scena Contemporanea) with Arte Sella, Fondazione Fitzcarraldo, CA’ Foscari University in Venezia– and the Museum of Human EMotion –supported by Comune di Bassano del Grappa (IT), La Briqueterie (FR), National Kaohsiung Center for the Arts (TW).
Masako is one of the founders of 4bid Gallery Amsterdam.