Reborn-Art Festival

Born in Saitama in 1987, and raised in Gunma, Japan. Suffering from congenital tibial hemimelia, Katayama had both legs amputated at the age of 9. Since then, she has created numerous self-portrait photography together with embroidered objects and decorated prostheses, using her own body as a living sculpture. Her belief is that tracing herself connects with other people and her everyday life can be also connected with society and the world, just like the patchwork made with threads and a needle by stitching borders. In addition to her art creation, Katayama leads “High heel project” in which she wore customized high-heeled shoes specially made for prosthesis to perform on stage as a singer, model or keynote speaker. The motto of this project is to take advantage of any means including art and disabled bodies if it helps to expand the “freedom of choice” for those in desperate need. Her major exhibitions include, “58th Venice Biennale 2019” , “Photographs of Innocence and of Experience-Contemporary Japanese Photography vol.14” (Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, 2017), “Roppongi Crossing - My body, your voice” (Mori Art Museum, 2016), “Aichi Triennale 2013” (Nayabashi), etc. The first photo book GIFT was published in 2019 by United Vagabonds. She received Higashikawa Award for The New Photographer category in 2019 and Kimura Ihei Award in 2020.