KIAC

An interdisciplinary group of artists who deal with the performativity of the kitchen, of food and the visualisation of invisible work: Ayaka Nakama (choreography, dance), Lucie Ortmann (dramaturg), Katrin Ribbe (photography, video art), and Takanori Shimodera/TAIYA (scenography). For "Echoes from within the Kitchen", the group joins forces to research, experiment, and gather working methods to develop new performative settings. The group is united by a focus on collaborative projects that are centred on the integration and production of publics and communities.

Kobe, *1992 – is a dancer. She has worked with Mika Kurosawa, Toshiki Okada (chelfitsch) and contact Gonzo, among others. She has recently pursued her own practice, which she creates through a process of wide-ranging research that relies on memories of people and places. Seeking out phenomena impossible to call anything but dance, she makes “mechanisms” for sharing the moments when such phenomena arise with others. She explores ways to expand the possibilities and remit of the profession of dancer, such as by opening a performance and meeting space called house next door in Shin-Nagata, Kobe, in April 2024. Her previous works include "Freeway Dance", a four-hour solo dance in which she dances the memories of others in a garden, and "Odoriba Legend", in which she ran a temporary theater built in an empty lot and witnessed its demolition. From 2018 to 2020, she was an associate artist of Dance Box (Kobe). Since 2022, Ayaka has been a fellow of The Saison Foundation (Tokyo).

Essen, *1981 – is a dramaturg and curator. She worked for the interdisciplinary festival Ruhrtriennale and was part of the artistic management teams of Schauspielhaus Wien and Theater Oberhausen. Since 2022, she has been working at tanzhaus nrw, Düsseldorf, where her focus is on international collaborations, art & encounters / participatory projects, and artistic research. As a freelance dramaturg, she recently collaborated with Satoko Ichihara on the piece ”Yoroboshi” as part of Theater der Welt 2023 in Frankfurt am Main. In December 2023, she spent a month in Tokyo, Kyoto, and Kobe as a Visiting Fellow of The Saison Foundation. Together with Mareike Hantschel and Katrin Ribbe, she has been developing the reenactment project "Aufstand aus der Küche" since 2014. Lucie is a member of the editorial team and author for the online journal MAP - Media | Archive | Performance.

Hanover, *1974 – works as an artist and photographer. Questions on contemporary photography and its underlying poetic and political narratives are at the core of her artistic practice. Her works encompass film, object, and installation. In 2014, Katrin started working on the photographic portrait series "b o s s" in which she portrays women in self-employment. In 2025, she joins forces with two female artists from Hiroshima and Poznań and display the expanded series in public space in Hanover. In 2017, Katrin showed her multimedia installation "body of work" in the brutalist building complex Ihmezentrum in Hanover. Katrin exhibits nationally and internationally, most recently at the Newington Gallery London, at Kaunas Photographer's Gallery, at Goethe Institut Nancy and at Artists Unlimited Gallery Bielefeld. She is a member of the UK-based Research Hub "Writing Photographs" which conducts research on photography and textual work.

Osaka, Fukuoka, *1994 – works as an architect / food stall researcher. Born in Kure City, Hiroshima Prefecture. After completing a master's degree in architecture and landscape architecture at Kyoto University of the Arts, he became freelance.
He specializes in “yatai” (food stalls) and conducts research, design, and production under the name “TAIYA”. He also investigates the “food stall ecosystem” of Asian countries and carries out his studies and practices while operating his food stalls in urban spaces. His objective is to revitalize the streets where people gather. His major awards include the Grand Prix at the TOKYO MIDTOWN AWARD in 2021 and an invitation to the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum's residency program in 2023.