Tari Ito

Tari Ito (伊藤 塔莉, Itō Tari) (1951 – September 22, 2021) was a Japanese performance artist, activist, and organizer based in Tokyo who presented her work in Japan and Asia, North America, and Europe. She was one of the few out lesbian artists in Japan.^[1][2]

In this Japanese name, Ito is the family name.

Tari Ito (伊藤 塔莉)
Born	1951 Tokyo, Japan
Died	2021
Known for	Performance Art
Notable work	Self-Portrait (自画像)
Awards	2011 Yayori Journalist Award Winner

Biography

Tari Ito was born in 1951 in Tokyo, Japan.^[3] She began working as a pantomime performer in Japan and the Netherlands before becoming active as a performance artist in the late 1980s, and as a feminist and lesbian artist since the 1990s.^[4] She established and founded the Women's Art Network (WAN) in 1994 in Tokyo,^[5] which organized Women Breaking Boundaries 21, an exhibition of women artists from Japan and other parts of Asia in 2001.^[1] Ito set up PA/F (Performance Art/Feminism) Space in 2003.

Ito's performance and artistic practice focused on exploring sexuality, military violence against women, and the fear of radiation exposure after Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011. Her work "has continued to draw on themes and materials from daily life to produce live performance artworks that she believes can become catalysts for change".^[6]

Beginning in 2014, she lived with degenerative neurological conditions that limited her mobility, though she continued performing during that time.^[7] Ito died from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis on September 22, 2021, at the age of 70.^[8]

Work

In 1996, Ito performed Self-Portrait (自画像) at various venues in Japan,^[9] and as part of Womanifesto in Bangkok, Thailand, in 1997.^[10] Ito considers the piece, in which she comes out as lesbian, as a "turning point" in her career.^[3] Other performances include Memory of Epidermis (1994), Me Being Me (1999), Where is the Fear (2001), I Would Not Forget You (2006),^[9] One Response (2008-2010),^[11] One Response for Bae Bong-gi and Countless Other Women (ひとつの応答 ぺポンギさんと数えきれない女たち) (2012), and Before the 37 Trillion Pieces Get to Sleep (37兆個が眠りに就くまえに) (2019).^[9]

Her work has been featured in the 3rd Nippon International Performance Art Festival NIPAF '96 (1996),^[12] and the exhibitions Womanifesto and Womanifesto II (1999),^[13] Text and Subtext (2000-2003),^[14] Women Breaking Boundaries 21 (2001),^[15] and Women In-Between (2012).^[16]