SHIMURAbros is a filmmaker and contemporary art duo consisting of Yuka Shimura and her brother Kentaro. In addition to films and video works, their works include sculptures and installations using light and optical glass. During this two-month fellowship, they will conduct research in the United States, primarily in San Francisco, on Beate Sirota Gordon, who contributed to the drafting of the human rights clauses in the Japanese Constitution. They aim to deepen their understanding of her life and insights, as well as to further explore themes of war and refugee issues, which are addressed in their recent works. Additionally, through exchanges with local people, they will collect living stories and focus on the connection between Beate Sirota Gordon and women in contemporary Japanese society, with the aim of weaving new narratives.

Profile

SHIMURAbros is a sister-brother duo comprising Yuka Shimura, who holds a bachelor’s degree from Tama Art University and a master’s degree from University of the Arts London: Central St Martins, and her brother Kentaro, who holds a degree in Imaging Art from Tokyo Polytechnic University. After receiving an Excellence Award in the Art Division of the 13th Japan Media Arts Festival, hosted by Japan’s Agency for Cultural Affairs, they went onto have their works shown at Festival de Cannes and the Berlinale Festival and exhibited by museums and art festivals in Japan and overseas. In recent years they participated in the Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions, and have taken part in the residence program at the National University of Singapore’s Centre for Contemporary Art (CCA). In 2017, ArtReview Asia magazine named SHIMURAbros as a “future great”. They relocated to Berlin in 2014 on a research grant from the Pola Art Foundation, where they currently reside as researchers at the studio of Olafur Eliasson.