Japan
https://www.asa.de/magazine/iss2/27seiji.htm

Seiji Shimoda is one of Japan’s most active, well-known and respected performance artists. He is a performer, a poet, an arts advocate, organizer, curator and lecturer at the Musashino Art University in Tokyo. Since graduating Osaka City University in 1977, Shimoda’s work has been presented at over 100 international festivals, conferences and galleries, in more than 30 countries across western and central Europe, North and Central America and throughout Asia. Shimoda is the Director of NIPAF (Nippon International Performance Art Festival, established in 1993) and has presented the work of over 300 international and Asian performance artists from 45 countries around the world in two annual festivals that take place in several cities in Japan. Under Shimoda’s direction, NIPAF has become one of the most influential festivals in the global performance art community and is a sought after destination for performance artists from around the world. Shimoda also organizes tours under the umbrella of NIPAF to promote art exchange and dialogue about performance art to the US, Poland, Philippines, Germany and Spain. In 2000, Shimoda was the first Asian artist to receive a prized Bessie Award (New York Dance and Performance). Shimoda’s own performance work is a combination of action poetry, performance and movement, and employing simple objects like chopsticks, a chair, a table and his physical body in unique ways.