Opening Reception: Thursday, November 9, 6–8PM

Experience this two-part solo exhibition of media works by internationally acclaimed movement artist Eiko Otake (b. 1952, Tokyo). Celebrated as both a collaborative and solo artist, including 40 years performing as Eiko & Koma, Eiko Otake, now in her early 70s, is exploring how to create a time and space for viewers to see her body and movement through video and photography without the necessity of her live presence.

“I want to create media works only a performer can make. If a viewer chooses to give ample time and attention to each piece, ‘a different kind of performance’ happens between she and I. Her seeing becomes a uniquely personal experience, in which I wish to linger.”

Each volume of the project includes exhibitions, screenings, and public conversations along with performative interventions and installations.

Co-presented by Asian Arts Initiative (AAI) and The Fabric Workshop and Museum (FWM), I Invited Myself, vol. III is a two-part exhibition in Philadelphia. Part One, I Invited Myself, vol. III: A Body at AAI (on view September 9–December 9, 2023) features Eiko’s lone body moving within different landscapes and absorbing what they hold. Part Two, I Invited Myself, vol. III: Duets at FWM (on view November 9, 2023–March 24, 2024) highlights her collaborative projects with artists of different races, identities, cultures, disciplines, and ages.

The Fabric Workshop and Museum
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EIKO OTAKE: I Invited Myself, vol.III is the third iteration of Eiko Otake’s I Invited Myself, an exhibition series that the artist started in 2022. Following the first iteration showcased at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the second iteration at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Asian Arts Initiative and The Fabric Workshop and Museum have partnered to present different versions of EIKO OTAKE: I Invited Myself in Philadelphia. The institutions have worked together and alongside the artist to present specific aspects of Otake’s expansive practice.

Join us September 9th for a screening and live performance marking the opening of this exhibit. Register for one of the performance times here. 

This exhibit is made possible with the support of William Penn Foundation, The Culture and Community Power Fund, Pennsylvania Council for the Arts, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the National Performance Network.

Asian Arts Iniative
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In celebration of Otake’s solo exhibition I Invited Myself, vol. II, the Department of Theater and Dance at Colorado College will host a series of two-day events featuring film screenings, live performance by Otake, and conversations with faculty, scholars, and curators.

Conversation: What to do with Eiko?

Thursday April 6, 4–5 p.m.
Jodee Nimerichter, Brian Rogers, Rosemary Candelario

Screening: A Body in Fukushima

Thursday April 6, 6 p.m.
Created and edited by Eiko Otake, this feature length film is composed from still photographs by William Johnston that recorded her lone performance in the surreal, irradiated landscapes of post-nuclear meltdown Fukushima over five visits.

The film had its world premiere at the Museum of Modern Art’s Doc Fortnight Festival 2022 and has since been screened in many festivals worldwide. Historian and photographer William Johnston’s talk with scholar Karen Shimakawa will follow the screening.

Conversation: What does a Body Carry?

Friday April 7, 1–2 p.m.
Joshua Chambers-Letson and Karen Shimakawa

Performance: Recalling “Slow Turn”

Friday, April 7, 2 p.m.
An experimental performance work conceived and performed by Eiko Otake accompanies the video documentary of her performance commissioned for the 20th year anniversary of the 9/11. Otake proposes to use her body as a place of recalling historical events that cannot be repeated.

Conversation: How does a Body Speak?

Friday April 7, 3:30–5 p.m.
Rosemary Candelario, Pallavi Snram

Performance: Intervention

Friday April 7, 6 p.m. | Fine Art Center
Eiko Otake will perform live as a part of Free Museum evening at the Fine Arts Center.

Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College
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Movement-based, interdisciplinary artist Eiko Otake has often created works in conversation with the dead. In Mother, an installation of two short films in Green-Wood’s Historic Chapel, she talks and dances with her mother, who died in 2019. At the Cemetery, where many mothers have been laid to rest and are mourned, Otake invites viewers to consider the passage that links each of us to the past, a mother, her body, and death.

Born and raised in Japan and a resident of New York since 1976, artist Eiko Otake’s work centers on movement and visual poetry. For more than 40 years, she performed as part of Eiko & Koma, but since 2014 has focused on solo projects. Otake’s A Body in Places has been performed at over 70 sites, including The Green-Wood Cemetery in September 2020. She received a special Duke Performing Award, Bessie Award citation, an Art Matters grant, and the Anonymous Was a Woman Award.

The films in Mother will play on loop, along with visual installation, in the Historic Chapel daily, 10am–5pm.

Free and open to the public, no reservations are necessary. Please consider a donation to The Green-Wood Historic Fund so that we can continue to offer free and low-cost programs throughout the year.

Green-Wood Cemetery
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Otake’s first museum solo-exhibition, I Invited Myself, vol. II, foregrounds the artist’s video and media, which have developed alongside her dance, choreography, and performance installations. Spanning from 1980 to the present, the works on view feature a body as it moves in and through various spaces, including the urban infrastructure of Tokyo and New York and the vast landscapes of Wyoming and California. Working closely with the curators, Otake choreographs her media works for the galleries of the Fine Arts Center. Editing and updating them for this occasion, she also brings in related, weathered objects. A self-described “immigrant artist,” Otake has challenged the expectations of a museum presentation. Rather than presenting a cohesive overview of the artist’s career, I Invited Myself places an emphasis on transition over statis. Viewers are strongly encouraged to return as select media will rotate over the course of the exhibition.

Eiko Otake: I Invited Myself, vol. II is organized by the artist, Katja Rivera, Curator of Contemporary Art and Ryan Platt, Associate Professor of Performance Studies in the Department of Theater & Dance at Colorado College with support from Savanah Pennell, Curatorial Paraprofessional. Support of the exhibition is generously provided by The Anschutz Foundation and Colorado Creative Industries.

Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College
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Christer Strömholm is one of Swedens most well-known and appreciated photografers. His breakthrough came during the 1950s with his pictures from Paris, not least the portraits of transsexuals at Place Blanche. In Where does anything actually begin? the focus is instead on parts of his other production. Different lines and traces within his rich pictorial world are reflected through internationally strong artistry; Annika Elisabeth von Hauswolff, Aziz Hazara, Gosette Lubondo, Eric Magassa and Eiko Otake with William Johnston. Connections between the work in the exhibition emerge in different ways; new tracks, new lines link the past and the present. The photos are presented outdoors in Wanås beech forest park.

The exhibition is made in collaboration with Strömholm Estate.

Wanås Konst
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Renowned artist Eiko Otake, working closely with her co-curator Elise Butterfield, will use the entire Lower Level 1 Galleries to explore new possibilities of exhibiting her performance-based practice together with her media works.

School of the Art Institute of Chicago
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