Tetsuya Umeda

Tetsuya Umeda has developed site-specific installations and performances in Japan and abroad, attuned to the structures of spaces, their surrounding environments, and the histories embedded within them. Using objects found on-site, everyday materials, and physical phenomena such as light, sound, wind, and water, he creates transformative experiences. With minimal elements—such as glass spheres or ropes—he reshapes spaces, leading audiences to retrace the traces and time etched into the site while embarking on a journey across new temporal dimensions.

His practice extends beyond museums and theaters to unconventional locations including abandoned commercial buildings, traditional houses, caves, mountaintops, and watersides. By accepting, translating, and reconfiguring the inherent limitations and conditions of each site, he poetically and critically opens up the latent possibilities of space.

In his performances, Umeda explores diverse formats: tour-based works that guide audiences into unfamiliar places, stage pieces that highlight the mechanics of the theater, and choral projects that disperse the center of focus. He is also recognized as an experimental sound artist, reimagining and reconstructing space through sound.

Through multilayered storytelling, Umeda’s practice has garnered wide acclaim both in Japan and internationally.

Biography
1980　Born in Kumamoto, Japan
Currently based in Osaka, Japan

Selected Solo Exhibitions
2023　Wait This Is My Favorite Part, Watarium Museum, Tokyo
2022　[　], OTA FINE ARTS 7CHOME, Tokyo
2020　Tetsuya Umeda in Beppu “O-Tai”, Kijima Apartment & Takewara Alley, Beppu
2019　The Origin of Song, Fukuoka Art Museum, Fukuoka
2013　Hotel New Osorezan, Ota Fine Arts Singapore, Singapore
2012　Waiting Room, Ota Fine Arts, Tokyo
2008　Criterium 73, Mito Art Tower, Mito

Selected Group Exhibitions
2023　Oku-Noto Triennale 2023, Suzu, Japan
2022　Demae Nabe for Jatiwangi Art Factory / Documenta 15, Kassel, Germany
2022　GARAGE SAILING」with John Richards (Dirty Electronics), Tim Shaw and Kanta Horio, Do a Front, Yamaguchi
2020　Saitama International Art Festival 2020, Former Omiya Ward Office, Omiya
2019　REBORN ART FESTIVAL, Ishinomaki
2018　East Coast Land Art Festival, Tulan, Taiwan
2017　Sapporo International Art Festival, Sapporo
2010　Aichi Triennale, Nagoya
2007　Portrait Session, Nadiff, Tokyo / Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima

Selected Performance Works
A Walk in Theater, Menicon Theater Aoi, Nagoya, 2025
River Walk, KYOTO EXPERIMENT 2022, Kyoto
September 0, Takatsuki Performing Arts Center, 2022
Composite: Variations / Circle, Kunstenfestivaldesarts 2017, Brussels, Belgium
INTERNSHIP, National Asia Culture Center, Gwangju, Korea, 2016 / TPAM 2018, KAAT Kanagawa Arts Theatre Hall
New Fune, 2015~