Yuya Tsukahara

Yuya Tsukahara

Born in Kyoto in 1979. In 2006 Tsukahara formed the unit contact Gonzo with Masaru Kakio in Osaka. The unit began performing in parks or on the streets in an improvisational style of physical contact that explored what they termed “Philosophy of pain, technique of contact.” They also began taking large volumes of photographs in a method called “the first man narrative” that involved taking photos of each other’s actions and they began uploading video clips of their performances on YouTube in real time. In 2007, Tsukahara and contact Gonzo won the grand prix “720@PAMO AWARD” of the Osaka Performing Arts Messe. The same year contact Gonzo was selected for the Jiro Yoshiwara Memorial Art Project organized by the Osaka Contemporary Art Center, traveling to Helsinki, Nanking, Seoul and Okinawa as part of the project. This resulted in the creation of “project MINIMA MORALIA” performed in 2008. After this Tsukahara and contact Gonzo became the focus of increasing attention in both the performing arts and contemporary art scenes that led to participation in international exhibitions and arts festivals such as the Nanking Triennale 2008 and the Aichi Triennale 2010. Currently contact Gonzo consists of four members, including Tsukahara, Yu Kanai, Itaru Kato and Keigo Mikajiri, and their varied activities involve performance and creation of installations in a variety of venues in Japan and internationally and publication of magazine. Tsukahara is a graduate of the art course of the Literary Research Dept. of Kwansei Gakuin University. He currently lives in Osaka.
https://www.youtube.com/user/contactGonzo