Biography
"LA DOLCE VITA - flower", 2003, watercolour on paper, 39 x 54 cm
BuBu de la Madeleine began her artistic career in the early 1990s as an early member of the artist collective Dumb Type. She appeared in the group’s seminal performance S/N (1994–96), which toured 20 cities across 15 countries. Following this, she left Dumb Type to pursue a solo practice. Since then, she has created a wide-ranging body of work—encompassing performance, installation, text, and video—noted for its sharp criticality, poetic resonance, and wry sense of humor.
Alongside her artistic pursuits, BuBu has remained deeply engaged in civil activism, particularly around the health and human rights of people living with HIV/AIDS and sex workers. She also continues to perform in club settings as both a drag queen and king, contributing to queer nightlife culture.
Since 2004, BuBu has worked under the ongoing thematic project A Mermaid's Territory. For her, the mermaid symbolizes a figure that exists between two realms: the sea of the dead and the land of the living. The concept of “territory” represents the boundary between self and other. Considering the body as a form of personal territory, BuBu draws upon lived experiences—including sex work, family caregiving, and the surgical removal of her ovaries and uterus. These inquiries culminated in her 2022 installation A Mermaid’s Territory – Flags and Internal Organs, in which scales shed by a mermaid—having even released her internal organs—are transformed into a succession of flags that soar into the air, liberated from earthly constraints.
In addition to her solo practice, BuBu collaborated with feminist artist and art historian Yoshiko Shimada in 1998 to present the exhibition Made in Occupied Japan. Through drag and gender subversion, the artists examined how femininity and sexuality in postwar Japan were shaped under American occupation. This radical collaboration would later inform BuBu’s 2025 collage work Meiji Drag: Anti-Imperial Sugoroku, a bold and satirical reexamination of Japan’s modernization and imperial legacy. Their deconstructive approach has become a pioneering example of queer and feminist art practice in Japan.
Biography
1961 Born in Osaka, Japan
Graduated from Kyoto City University of Arts, Conceptual and Environmental Design Course
1992 Joined Dumb Type; performed in S/N (1994–96)
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2024 Pollen and Seeds, Ota Fine Arts 7CHOME, Tokyo
2022 Territory of the Mermaid — Flags and Organs, Ota Fine Arts
2004 Territory of the Mermaid, Ota Fine Arts
1998 Made in Occupied Japan (with Yoshiko Shimada), Ota Fine Arts
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025 Rooms Of Our Own, Ota Fine Arts, Shanghai
2025 Berlin Biennale: passing the fugitive on, Berlin
2025 Collection 2: Undo, Redo — I Untie, I Re-do, The National Museum of Art, Osaka
2024 Collection 2: The Body—Bodies, The National Museum of Art, Osaka
2019 JAPAN UNLIMITED, MuseumsQuartier Wien
2019 Ecologies of Expression, Arts Maebashi
1998 Donaiyanen!, École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris
Public Collections
The National Museum of Art, Osaka
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Alongside her artistic pursuits, BuBu has remained deeply engaged in civil activism, particularly around the health and human rights of people living with HIV/AIDS and sex workers. She also continues to perform in club settings as both a drag queen and king, contributing to queer nightlife culture.
Since 2004, BuBu has worked under the ongoing thematic project A Mermaid's Territory. For her, the mermaid symbolizes a figure that exists between two realms: the sea of the dead and the land of the living. The concept of “territory” represents the boundary between self and other. Considering the body as a form of personal territory, BuBu draws upon lived experiences—including sex work, family caregiving, and the surgical removal of her ovaries and uterus. These inquiries culminated in her 2022 installation A Mermaid’s Territory – Flags and Internal Organs, in which scales shed by a mermaid—having even released her internal organs—are transformed into a succession of flags that soar into the air, liberated from earthly constraints.
In addition to her solo practice, BuBu collaborated with feminist artist and art historian Yoshiko Shimada in 1998 to present the exhibition Made in Occupied Japan. Through drag and gender subversion, the artists examined how femininity and sexuality in postwar Japan were shaped under American occupation. This radical collaboration would later inform BuBu’s 2025 collage work Meiji Drag: Anti-Imperial Sugoroku, a bold and satirical reexamination of Japan’s modernization and imperial legacy. Their deconstructive approach has become a pioneering example of queer and feminist art practice in Japan.
Biography
1961 Born in Osaka, Japan
Graduated from Kyoto City University of Arts, Conceptual and Environmental Design Course
1992 Joined Dumb Type; performed in S/N (1994–96)
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2024 Pollen and Seeds, Ota Fine Arts 7CHOME, Tokyo
2022 Territory of the Mermaid — Flags and Organs, Ota Fine Arts
2004 Territory of the Mermaid, Ota Fine Arts
1998 Made in Occupied Japan (with Yoshiko Shimada), Ota Fine Arts
Selected Group Exhibitions
2025 Rooms Of Our Own, Ota Fine Arts, Shanghai
2025 Berlin Biennale: passing the fugitive on, Berlin
2025 Collection 2: Undo, Redo — I Untie, I Re-do, The National Museum of Art, Osaka
2024 Collection 2: The Body—Bodies, The National Museum of Art, Osaka
2019 JAPAN UNLIMITED, MuseumsQuartier Wien
2019 Ecologies of Expression, Arts Maebashi
1998 Donaiyanen!, École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris
Public Collections
The National Museum of Art, Osaka
Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo
Installation shots
BuBu de la Madeleine, "A Mermaid's Territory - Flags and Internal Organs, " Ota Fine Arts Tokyo, 2022
Photo: Kanichi Kanegae
Exhibitions
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COUPLE
Nobuaki Takekawa, BuBu and Yoshiko Shimada, Akira the Hustler, Yayoi Kusama, Dennis Oppenheim, GI JOE 22 Jun - 10 Jul 2004 TokyoRead more -
Gallery Artists
BuBu de la Madeleine, Akira the Hustler, Yayoi Kusama, Tsuyoshi Ozawa 6 - 28 Jun 2003 TokyoRead more -
Gallery Collection
Yasumasa Morimura, Atelier Van Lishout, Tomomi Maekawa, Tamu Ochiai, Alighiero Boetti, Yayoi Kusama, Dennis Oppenheim, Koji Sekimoto, Jessica Diamond, Bruce Nauman, Nobuaki Takekawa, BuBu de la Madeleine 19 Mar - 27 Apr 2002 TokyoRead more -
LA DOLCE VITA
BuBu de la Madeleine 30 Nov - 22 Dec 2001 TokyoRead more -
How to Use Women's Body
Shu Lea Cheang, Ernest Pujol, Lulu Hou, FROG, BuBu＋Shimada 3 - 30 Mar 2000 TokyoRead more -
The Bitters "Whores on Holiday"
BuBu de la Madelaine, Akira the Hustler, Mikado 9 Jul - 7 Aug 1999 TokyoRead more -
Video Work
Yayoi Kusama, Tsuyoshi Ozawa, BuBu＋Shimada 16 Sep - 3 Oct 1998 TokyoRead more -
Made in Occupied Japan
BuBu + Yoshiko Shimada 16 Apr - 9 May 1998 TokyoIn the past, my work examined the different roles of Japanese and other Asian women during World War II, in which Japanese women assumed a glorified, nationalistic mother role while...Read more
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News
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BuBu de la Madeleine "Art with gender and sexuality" the Gakushuin University
7 Dec 2019BuBu de la Madeleine will give a lecture in 'Art with gender and sexuality' held at the Gakushuin University in Tokyo on 14th December 2019....Read more -
BuBu de la Madeleine "The Ecology of Expression : Remaking Our Relations with the World" Arts Maebashi, Gunma, Japan
30 Sep 2019BuBu de la Madeleine participates in 'The Ecology of Expression: Remaking Our Relations with the World'at Arts Maebashi from 12th October 2019 to 13th January...Read more -
BuBu de la Madeleine "Museum of human Rights & Liberation HERSTORIES FROM THE ARCHVES OF ART-SCAPE" Kyoto Seika University Gallery Fleur, Kyoto
22 Jun 2019BuBu de la Madeleine participates in 'Museum of human Rights & Liberation HERSTORIES FROM THE ARCHVES OF ART-SCAPE' at Kyoto Seika University Gallery Fleur from...Read more -
BuBu de la Madeleine "ARTxSCIENCExGENDER" Kyoto Annie's Cafe
17 Aug 2017BuBu de la Madeleine will give a lecture in 'ARTxSCIENCExGENDER' held at the Kyoto Annie's Cafe on 28th August 2019. Exhibition Information Title : ARTxSCIENCExGENDER...Read more
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