Formed in Kyoto in 1996, the visual + performance unit Kyupi Kyupi currently consists of Yoshimasa Ishibashi, Mazuka Kimura, and Koichi Emura. As unit director, Ishibashi undertakes moving image works and directs the unit’s live performances, while Kimura handles spatial design and 3D media art, and Emura, visual design and animation. Kyupi Kyupi has attained international renown through frequent appearances in exhibitions in Japan and abroad, including “Visions of the Body” (National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto) and the Venice Biennial, not to mention a solo exhibition at Palais de Tokyo / Site de création contemporaine in Paris. By alternately exhibiting moving image installations at art museums and staging performances integrated with moving image works at halls and cafes, they commute freely between art and entertainment, interweaving their involvements in these two territories.

SickeTel—Kyupi Kyupi and Ishibashi will be the first large-scale exhibition at a Japanese museum of the works of Kyupi Kyupi and Yoshimasa Ishibashi, who produces media content as a director of films (“I Wanna Drive You Insane”) and TV programs (“Oh! Mikey”). The exhibition will focus on new creations, including recent moving image works by Ishibashi and a large-scale installation by Kyupi Kyupi created for the exhibit spaces of this museum. Various related programs are also scheduled, including film showings, workshops, and a Kyupi Kyupi live performance. As the opening salvo of Kyupi Kyupi’s return to active performing and exhibiting, the exhibition promises to immerse visitors in their dazzling world of moving imagery.