About

©︎Bastian Thiery
Sayaka Katsumoto (b. 1984) is an artist, filmmaker, and anthropologist based in Berlin, Germany. She earned a BA in Photography from Osaka University of Arts in 2006. She moved to Berlin in 2013, received an MA in Visual and Media Anthropology from Freie Universität Berlin in 2018 and an MA in Art in Context from Universität der Künste Berlin in 2024.
Most of her artistic practice involves video, sound installation, performance and sculptures, based on anthropological research on hidden cultures and minority communities in her native Japan as well as broader East Asian culture and history. Utilizing contemporary new media and technologies, such as virtual sound spaces with binaural audio, aesthetics in social networks, and 3D avatars, she combines anthropological research with artistic practice, exploring new, contemporary interpretations and the expressive possibilities that certain emotions and sensations evoke, through the incorporation of the method of sensory ethnography.
Exhibition, Screening
2025
Performance “Stadt findet Kunst” / BücherZelle, Berlin, Germany
Group Exhibition “Shu Ha Ri” / Japanisch-Deutsches Zentrum Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Group Exhibition "An Experimental Ecology. An Experimental Ecology. Kunstpraxis im Dialog der Disziplinen an der UdK Berlin" / UNI.T, Berlin, Germany
Group Exhibition "ARE YOU FOR REAL Phase 2" ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) / online
2024 
Group Exhibition for the Shortlist of the Elsa-Neumann-Stipendium des Landes Berlin (NaFöG) / UdK Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Group Exhibition “Institut für Kunst im Kontext: Master-Ausstellung” / UdK Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Group Exhibition “OUT OF CONTEXT” / UdK Berlin, Berlin, Germany
2023 
Group Exhibition, Rundgang / UdK Berlin, Berlin, Germany
2022
Group Exhibition "GROUP SHOW Room 252" / UdK Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Screening, Burnt Experimental Video Art and Film Festival / online
Screening, Short Movie Club Film Festival "NEFILTRAVANAE KINO" / Minsk, Belarus
2021  
Group Exhibition, Rundgang / UdK Berlin, Berlin, Germany
Group Exhibition, ARE YOU FOR REAL, ifa (Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen) / online
Screening, ASMRKitten and the Boston Collective Film Festival / online
Screening, Kinesthesia / Middlesex University, London, UK
Group Exhibition, DECONTEXTS / Millepiani, Rome, Italy
2020  
Screening, Ongezien Kort / Cinema Cartoon's, Antwerp, Belgium
2018  
Group Exhibition "Malleable Borders, Shifting Identities" / Flutgraben e.V., Berlin, Germany
2017  
Group Exhibition and Forum “Farocki Now: A Temporary Academy” / HKW & silent green, Berlin, Germany
2016  
Screening, British Shorts Film Festival / SPUTNIK KINO, Berlin, Germany
2014  
Solo Exhibition "In Stock" / Gallery Antenna, Kyoto, Japan 
2013  
Portfolio Review, Düsseldorf Photo Weekend / Kraut Magazin, Düsseldorf, Germany

Scholarship, Funding
2025
BESD III-Programm 2025 / Bezirksamt Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf Berlin
2024 
Projektförderung / interflugs
2023 
Projektförderung / interflugs
2020 
Studienabschlussstipendien für internationale Studierende (STIBET I) / DAAD
Publication
2022
eigenart #96 / AStA der Universität der Künste Berlin / online
ZEIT Germany Study & Research 2022-2023

Education
2019–2024  
Masterstudiengang Art in Context, Universität der Künste Berlin
2016–2018  
MA Visual and Media Anthropology, Freie Universität Berlin
2002–2006 
Diploma, Department of Photography, Faculty of Arts, Osaka University of Arts