Biography
Yu Hirai was born in 1963 in Japan, which she left for good at the age of 20 for Europe. From 1985 to 1988, she pursued an education at the l’Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Arts Visuels « La Cambre » in Brussels where she took a particular interest in the technique of drawing. After a three-year stay in Barcelona, she lived from 1994 to 1999 in Berlin where she started to practice photography. In 1999, Yu Hirai takes part in the programme of the résidency of Light Work (Syracuse university/Etat-Unis) After a seconde résidency at the Irish Museum of Modern Art (Dublin/Irlande), she gains a bourse de l’UNESCO ASHBERG and FONCA for a series of photography in Mexico. In 2002 and 2003, She stays at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris.
Since 1988, she regularly presented her work in the form of personal expositions, (2017, Forest of questions, Japon ; 2015, Entre chien et loup, Les bains révélateurs, Roubaix ; 2013, Frontières, galerie Sator, Paris ; 2005, Le petit cirque, Belgique…).
In 2017, Yu Hirai won the prise of parcours Phot’Aix, which her allow to do solo show the following year at la Galerie de la Fontaine Obscure in Aix en Provence. Since 2010, She has taken part in various festivals, include Dali International Photography Exhibition in China or also Mons 2015 in Belgique. Concerning group shows, in 2001, she takes part in the Next génération : art contemporain d’Asie at passage de Retz in Paris ; in 2003, she shows in Jeune création at the grande halle de La Villette in Paris ; in 2007, in Art for art’s sake au palazzo Zamberccari in Italie ; in 2012, she is invited to show her series of photography at l’université Seika à Kyoto in Japan ; in 2019, her photographies are shown at Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Art in Japan
1985年から1988年まで ラ カンブル国立美術大学で、ドローイングを学ぶ。
ベルリンの壁崩壊後、東西ベルリンの不思議な魅力に惹かれベルリンへ1992年移住する。
ドローイングや、オブジェなどと共に写真の作品をつくりはじめる。
1999年Light Work(シラキュース、アメリカ）のアーチスト-イン- レジデンスに招待され、そこで、アナログ カラー写真の焼き付け技術を学ぶ。 2000年The Irish Museum of Modern Art のアーチスト-イン-レジデンスに参加したり、Unesco Ashberg の奨学金を得てメキシコで制作活動をする。
2002-03年Cite international des Arts （パリ）に招待される。
以来パリに住み、制作活動をする。