Akari Takenoub (b. in 1993, Tokyo, Japan, lives and works in Tokyo, Japan)

Threshold (2025)

The Dior Photography and Visual Arts Award for Young Talents presents the work of Akari Takenobu, who explores the boundary between the visible and the invisible, between physical presence and immaterial existence. Shaped by her experiences with the paranormal, the artist uses her own body as material to question what lies beyond perception. In Threshold, she photographs her body, fragments the images, and reassembles them into new and unexpected silhouettes, in a process she describes as a “simulated death.” Through photography, collage, and installation, Takenobu deconstructs the body’s materiality to create a form suspended between reality and the unknown.

Akari Takenobu is currently pursuing a master’s degree at Tokyo University of the Arts. Inspired by childhood experiences often described as “paranormal,” she has developed a
lasting interest in invisible worlds and the underlying structures of reality, which she explores through photography, collage, and installation. She also creates works from images generated through infrared noise, questioning the possibility of bringing forms into view from areas normally inaccessible to human perception. Her images are often re-materialized and extended through sculptures and spatial installations, allowing her to further explore the structures and fluctuations of the invisible.

The House of Dior and artists have always had strong ties, as shown by its history of friendships and collaborations. Photography holds a very special place in this history, thanks to the “Dior Photography and Visual Arts Award for Young Talents” created in 2018 in partnership with Luma Arles and the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Photographie d’Arles. This event, initiated by Parfums Christian Dior, celebrates its taste for boldness and discovery, and is intended as a crossroads for exchanges and encounters with the young talents of tomorrow. For the fourth time as a partner of Offscreen, Dior would like to highlight Araki Takenobu, winner of the 9th edition 2026 of the Dior Photography and Visual Arts Award for Young Talents.