Kazue MONNO

Kazue Monno
+31 649007726

monno.kazue@gmail.com

artist statement

Kazue Monno is a visual artist and animation filmmaker based in the Netherlands and Japan. She has been working with Takeshi Nagata as the creative duo “TOCHKA” since 1998. They invented a method of creating animation called “PiKA PiKA”, which combines long exposure photography with stop motion animation techniques. The technique enables people of all ages and backgrounds to make animation by drawing lines in the air, using lights. TOCHKA's area of activity ranges from experimental animations to contemporary art. 


Experience

Worked as an art and management lecturer at Kyoto University of Art and Design (Japan)

Ability to write and edit scripts, storyboard and  animation


Education

Kyoto University of Art and Design, Japan. - Bachelor of Arts, 2001

Department of Fine and Applied Arts, Oil Painting Course.

Exhibitions

2019  [group] Festival tweetakt 2019 Utrecht, the Netherlands2018-19  [group] Amsterdam light Festival 2018/19 , the Netherlands2017 [group] "Light/Electricity/God: Thunderbolts and Art", Gunma Museum of Art, Tatebayashi, Japan2017 [solo] “TOCHKA PLAYGROUND“, Higashine City Art Museum, Yamagata, Japan.2016 [group] “Rokko meets Art ", Rokko garden terrace, Kobe, Japan,2015 [group] "Oita toilennale 2015 ", Wakakusa Park, Oita, Japan2015 [solo] "HIKARIASOBI ", Kurobe city art museum, Toyama, Japan2014 [group] “Art Line Kashiwa Screen Project VISIONS 2014", JR Kashiwa station, Chiba, Japan2013 [group] "DAYDREAMS ", Takamatsu City Museum of Art, Kagawa, Japan2012 [solo] "TOCHKA Exhibition", Kawasaki City Museum, Kanagawa, Japan2012 [group] "Project to Support the Nurturing of Media Arts Creators ", The National Art Center, Tokyo, Japan,2012 [group] "Artists and the Disaster / Documentation in Progress ", Contemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito, Ibaraki, Japan2011 [group] Japan Media Arts Festival in Miyazaki ", Miyazaki Art Center, Miyazaki, Japan 2011 [solo] "ReBuild", Contemporary Art Museum, Kumamoto, Japan2011 [group] "pre Sapporo biennale", Hokkaido Museum Of Modern Art, Sapporo, Japan2010 [group] "Aichi Triennial 2010 Arts and Cities ", Chojamachi Site, Aichi, Japan2010 [group] "Japan Media Arts Festival in Kyoto - Parallel world, Kyoto “, Kyoto Art Center, Kyoto, Japan2009 [group] "UNIQLO JAPAN EXHIBITION : See the New Japan ",2009 World Economic Forum, Davos, Switzerland ( Also exhibited in France, China, and Japan )2009 [group] "Aichi Triennial 2010 Pre-event : Choja-machi project 2009 ", Choja-machi Area, Aichi, Japan2008 [group] "11th Japan Media Arts Festival ", The National Art Center, Tokyo, Japan,2008 [group] "KITA!!:Japanese Artists Meet Indonesia ", Selasar Sunaryo Art Space, Bandung, Indonesia2008 [solo] "TOCHKA Super Living - PiKA PiKA in YAMAGATA ", Ruupa, Yamagata, Japan2008 [group] "Akasaka Art Flower 08 ", Shimazaki (Former Japanese restaurant), Tokyo, Japan2006 [group] "10th Japan Media Arts Festival ", Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, Tokyo, Japan

Awards

2020"Onoe  Caponoe The message"Winner at ZED Fest film festival20202020"Onoe  Caponoe The message" Goled Medal at London X4 seasonal short film festival 20202016 "TRACK", Grand prix at the Holland Animation Film Festival2015 "TRACK", Grand prix at the Animafest Cyprus2010 "UNIQLO CALENDAR", BRONZE in the Cyber Lotus at Cannes Lions (joined as a hooting director)2009 "OGRE YOU ASSHOLE pinhole", Recommended Works in the Entertainment Division at the Japan Media Arts Festival2008 "PIKA PIKA Lightning Doodle Project", Grand prix in the Lab Competition at the International Short Film Festival, Clermont-Ferrand"PiKA PiKA×So-net project", SILVER in the Cyber Lotus at the ADFEST"PiKA PiKA×So-net project", YouTube Video Awards Japan 20082007 "PiKA PiKA 2007", Recommended Works in the Animation Division at the Japan Media Arts Festival2006 "PIKA PIKA Lightning Doodle Project", Excellence Award in the Animation Division at the 10th Japan Media Arts Festival2006 "PIKA PIKA Lightning Doodle Project", Honorable Mention at Ottawa International Animation Festival

Screening | selected

2015 Imagine Science Films, USA2015 Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival, UK2015 VIDEOEX International Experimental Film & Video Festival, Switzerland2015 ANIMASIVO, Mexico City Contemporary Animation Festival, Mexico2015 International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Germany2015 Image Forum Festival, Japan

NEIGHBOURS

Installation for Amsterdam Light Festival 2018-2019
The Japanese artists Kazue Monno and Takeshi Nagata, who make up the duo TOCHKA, are specialised in light painting animations. They regularly organise educational projects including workings in light painting at schools or public spaces. In collaboration with Stichting Juf op Straat, they worked with children from 30 classes in Amsterdam to create light painting animations for their artwork 'Neighbours'. 
The subject of this work of art is the communication that we have with people in regular home environment, such as family members, roommates, and neighbours. With these people, we send and receive numerous messages on a daily basis, with all of our senses playing a role in that process. In small groups, the schoolchildren came up with different 'activities' to represent this theme: lighting the candles on a birthday cake to wish your father or mother a happy birthday, singing a song because you're happy, or banging the ceiling to stop the noise from the upstairs neighbours. The children painted these scenes using small light sources. Every time, twelve short recordings were made, showing the scene change bit by bit. Played back in succession, these images together form a short animation. The children could watch the results live on a screen, making it immediately visible that light, in addition to paint, chalk and pencil, could be used as a 'medium'. This way, they had the chance to experience what it’s like to be a real artist. 
Monno and Nagata combined the children’s eight domestic scenes from each school class into one big ‘house’, projected on the quay of the Schippersgracht using special, analogue projectors built by the duo. This type of projector, that plays the individual images (or light paintings) in a loop, is known as the theâtre optique and was invented by Émile Reynaud in 1888. The result is a simple, nostalgic animation that contrasts with our modern (HD or 3D) films. 
Those who watch 'Neighbours' will never see the same thing two nights in a row. Each night the animations from a different class are projected, making the night a ‘premiere’ of sorts that the children can celebrate with their classmates during a boat tour along the festival.
NEIGHBOURS IS SUPPORTED BY: AMVJ Fonds | Juf op Straat | Nut Amsterdam

TRACK

Now, it is a time for us, humans, to consider a revolution against electricity and energy due to earthquakes, climate change and numerous other disasters.Due to the discovery of fire, humanity discovered a way to leave records for future generations.Those pictures became characters and letters, and through the years,  transmissions of information became more and more advanced. I focused on the cave murals. Murals were created in order to pass down stories and history to posterity.  From murals, we could tell that the discovery of fire was a highly important turning point for ancient humans. The invention of electricity brought a bigger revolution to us. This work depicts the history of energy revolution.
FESTIVALS | selected2016 Holland Animation Film Festival - Experimental film ★Grand Prix★2015 Countryside Animafest Cyprus - View of the World, Cyprus ★Grand Prix★2015 Imagine Science Films, USA2015 Encounters Short Film and Animation Festival, UK2015 VIDEOEX International Experimental Film & Video Festival, Switzerland2015 ANIMASIVO, Mexico City Contemporary Animation Festival, Mexico2015 International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Germany2015 Image Forum Festival, Japan
Japan | 2015 | color | DCP | 16:9 | stereo | 4' | animation, experimental

CliCK ClaCK

Created by TOCHKA | Japan | 2017 | Mixed Media | LED : 300w 14400 lm

Handmade 35mm Film Projector.

It is a work that resurrects the old format which was rendered obsolete by the recent digital revolution. Analogue still cameras, which are no longer available are used as the lens part of the projector. This has also made me think about the endless cycle of human consumerism. Consumerism is constantly changing our society. Previously used mediums are not used anymore. With every generation, the way we collect memories and data changes, while the old tools are left in the past.Recording of information is crucial for humanity. From the day the primitive man drew a mural painting on the wall of a cave, we witnessed the first desire to record information. Media on which we record things has been changing over time. I projected images in which a couple, a man and a woman, are connected, a new life is nurtured, depicting the cycle of life and death. I felt that the endless consumerism cycle resembles the never-ending cycle of life, so I used the loop animation to represent it.
[SELECTED] The 20th Japan Media Arts Festival Jury Selections Art Division.[EXHIBIT] “TOCHKA PLAYGROUND“, Higashine City Art Museum, Yamagata, Japan(2017) / “Rokko meets Art ", Rokko garden terrace, Kobe, Japan(2016)
Screen to tower for "ROKKO MEETS ART"  |  September 14 (Wed) - November 23 (Wed), 2016
Process of the production
Projected materials
Prototype of handmade film projector
Orchestra for film projector | Conductor Yamaji Atsushi | Japan | 2017 | Performance

Time Travel Guide feat. Shing02

Japan | 2017 | color | DCP | 16:9 | stereo | 4' | animation, experimental VR
It is a promotion of the cultural exchange event  between Japan, China and South Korea.Animators have drawn an animation using a VR brush tool. As the Chinese characters transform into Japanese characters, Each letter shape is similar to another, therefore there are a lot of same shaped letters. Every character is expressed through another one, which makes them interconnected. 

360 camera project

Japan | 2009 | color |  4:3 | 3;47 | animation, music video
Netherlands | 2018 | color |  VR | ' | animation, experimental under development
Netherlands | 2018 | color |  VR | 1' | animation, experimental under development

Let’s Flip Flap 

Let’s Flip Flap |  Japan | 2017 | Installation| mixed media 
This work is an animation installation of five competitions newly added to the Tokyo Olympics 2020. When the audience  pump in the air using a bicycle pump, animation equipment moves. I wanted to have a design that audience could interact with. 

 

Japan | 2012 | color | HDCAM | 16:9 | stereo | 5'30 | animation, experimentalMusic | U-zhaan, Peace-K

ReBuild

After the Great East Japan earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011, I witnessed many changes. Towns were lost in a moment. Children living in Fukushima couldn’t go out and play freely. This work was made from the pictures drawn in the landscapes of parts of Japan. Using the reflection of sunlight, we tried to capture people’s emotion for “energy”.
FESTIVALS | selected2014 New Chitose Airport International Animation Festival, Japan2014 Flatpack Festival, UK2013 INVIDEO, Italy2013 Indie Cork a festival of independent cinema, Ireland2013 International Animation Festival of Brazil, ANIMA MUNDI, Brazil2013 Minimalen Short Film Festival, Norway2012 LIAF: London International Animation Festival, UK

LIGHT PAINTING WITH ALIENS 

LIGHT PAINTING WITH ALIENS | 2015 | Video Installation | Interactive                  
Interactive animation installation for children and families. Participants can drift into space and use light drawing to develop the story.
[EXHIBIT] "ART GARDEN", Department store Nishinomiya Gardens, Hyogo, Japan

All I Want You Is To Be Safe And Sound

CoDirected with Kosai Sekine | Japan | 2011 | color | SD | 4:3 | stereo | 1'36 | Music | Yoko Kanno
For those who have suffered immeasurable sorrow on March 11. This music, movie, and the website were created to lighten up those hearts for all those who have suffered. We pray for all the victims of the disaster and hope they can confront the situation with courage and go on with life without losing their hearts in the days to come. May this tragedy become an opportunity for us all to make a better world,a better life,and a better place where people come together with their heart-warming souls. 

PiKA PiKA Lightning Doodle Project

Japan | 2006 | color | HDCAM | 16:9 | stereo | 3'53 | animation, experimental
In the summer of 2005, during an evening at the open-air school of C.A.P., a workshop using graffiti created with the long exposure function of digital cameras was carried out for the first time. For us, collaborative work with children is a vital element of our activities. When we work with children, they lead us to new realizations and new discoveries, and in the process the material for the next workshop is created.

PiKA PiKA in INDONESIA

Light painting workshop for 5 days around Bandung, Indonesia from 9th to 14th April 2008.The participants were students, children, angkot (mini bus) drivers, musicians etc.Music by JIMBOT and GANJOLES.Recording Masterplan.

PiKAPiKA in KANAZAWA 2008

Full version of the movie and the workshop method are Collection of 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa




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KAZUE MONNO703 Heemwaadweg Weesp 1382HC, Netherlands+31 (0) 6 49 00 77 26monno.kazue@gmail.com