Die rote Hütte

During a four-day work-in-progress exhibition, the artists Sae Esashi and Tomoko Mori are developing their installation work in the Sternschnuppen exhibition space. Based on a new text by the Japanese poet Hiromi Itō that explores Komachi Onono's life, the two artists are working on a visual and expansive interpretation.


Due to her extraordinary appearance, Komachi Onono is still considered a symbol of female beauty in Japan. Her life—marked by her early glory as a celebrated court poet and her later tragedy as a lonely, aging woman on the fringes of society—has inspired numerous literary, artistic, and theatrical works for centuries.


At the conclusion of the exhibition, the dancer and choreographer Yuko Kaseki will also interpret Itō's text about Komachi Onono and interact with the artists' works during her performance.


The exhibition "The Red Hut" also marks the launch of the KOMACHI project – an interdisciplinary collaboration of literature, dance, music, and visual art, which will be presented at the Asia Triennial in Manchester in November 2025.


Yuko Kaseki's performances combine dance, visual art, and experimental music to create poetically vibrant images. At the center is the body as an expression of social reality and life on the margins of society. Her international practice reflects the spirit of butoh, performance art, and interdisciplinary research.