Seiji Shimoda

Born in 1953, Seiji Shimoda lives and works in Nagano. He is an artist and poet, and teaches performance art in two Tokyo universities as a part-time lecturer. He is also the founder and director of NIPAF, one of the most influential festivals in the global performance art community. A total of more than 400 artists from over 50 countries have been invited to Japan to participate in NIPAF. 

After being a high school student activist with an interest in sports, literature, and dropout culture, Seiji shifted towards becoming a strange action artist in the 1970’s. He is one of the most active performance artists in Japan and Asia, and has participated in more than 400 international performance art festivals. He often gives workshops to promote performance, especially in Asia. As such, many artists have been influenced by his work and teachings, and he has nurtured the emergence of international performance art festivals in numerous Asian countries.