born in 1966 in Gifu, Japan
lives and works in Paris, France and Kyoto, Japan
Japan’s leading electronic composer and visual artist Ryoji Ikeda focuses on the essential characteristics of sound itself and that of visuals as light by means of both mathematical precision and mathematical aesthetics. Ikeda has gained a reputation as one of the few international artists working convincingly across both visual and sonic media. He elaborately orchestrates sound, visuals, materials, physical phenomena and mathematical notions into immersive live performances and installations.
Alongside of pure musical activity, Ikeda has been working on long-term projects through live performances, installations, books and CD’s such as 'datamatics' (2006-), 'test pattern' (2008-), 'spectra' (2001-), ‘cyclo.’ a collaborative project with Carsten Nicolai, ‘superposition’ (2012-), 'supersymmetry' (2014-) and ‘micro | macro’ (2015-).
He performs and exhibits worldwide at spaces such as Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Singapore Art Museum, Ars Electronica Center Linz, Elektra Festival Montreal, Grec and Sonar Festivals Barcelona, Aichi Triennale Nagoya, Palazzo Grassi Venice, Park Avenue Armory New York, The Whitechapel Gallery, The Barbican Centre and Somerset House London, Museo de Arte Bogota, Hamburger Bahnhof Berlin, DHC/Art Montreal, Festival d’Automne Paris, Sharjah Biennale, Carriageworks Sydney, Auckland Triennale, MONA Museum Hobart – Tasmania, Ruhrtriennale, Telefonica Foundation Madrid and Kyoto Experiment Festival, among others.
In 2015-16, major exhibitions include ‘supersymmetry’ presented at Le Lieu Unique in Nantes, The Vinyl Factory, London and Kumu Art Museum Tallin, Estonia; ‘micro | macro’ at ZKM centre for Art and Media, Karlsruhe, and solo exhibitions at Espai d á rt contemporani de Castelló, Spain and Wood Street Galleries, Pittsburgh. His works were also part of group show exhibitions and festivals at ACT Centre Gwangju (Korea), Singapore Art Science Museum, Kunstverein Hannover, MONA Museum Hobart (Tasmania) and Lichtkunstfestival in Ludwigsburg (Germany) and Kyoto Experiment Festival.
In 2016 he premiered a new acoustic stage piece ‘music for percussion’ in collaboration with ensemble Eklekto (Geneva) currently on tour.
In 2017, he is part of group exhibitions such as Elevation 1049: Avalanche i(Gstaad), Dox Gallery (Prague, Czech Republic), Barbican Center (London, UK), Centre Pompidou (Metz-FR), La Villette/Festival d’Automne (Paris, FR). Solo shows include Galerie Almine Rech - curated by Olivier Renaud Clément (London, UK) and 74 (Istanbul, Turkey).
His albums +/- (1996), 0°C (1998), matrix (2000), dataplex (2005), test pattern (2008) and supercodex (2013) pioneered a new minimal world of electronic music through his razor-sharp techniques and aesthetics. In 2016, ‘The Solar System’ a limited edition vinyl was released by The Vinyl Factory. In 2017 he will release a new CD ‘music for percussion’.
He is the award winner of the Prix Ars Electronica Collide@CERN 2014.