during Berlin Art Week 2026

Friday, 11 September 2026 | 4 pm & 6 pm

Zilberman | Berlin
Goethestr. 82, 10623 Berlin, 2nd floor

We are pleased to announce Caryatid – 人柱, a new performance by Berlin-based Japanese dancer, performer, and choreographer IChi Go (Sachiko Ikutani), taking place at Zilberman | Berlin on Friday, 11 September, during Berlin Art Week 2026.

Together with her long-time dance partner Ryota Maeda and Evgeny Ganeev, IChi Go has developed the performance in response to Azade Köker’s current solo exhibition Stolon. Presented twice, at 4 pm and 6 pm, the 20-minute performance moves through the exhibition and takes up its exploration of connection, support, and the ambivalence of being held within a network of relationships.

The performance begins in the room of Köker’s installation Im Netz des Ich (In the Web of the Self, 2025–2026), where a large paper sphere inscribed with the word “ICH” is suspended within a net of interlinked paper elements. The net holds the sphere, but also holds it in place: without the net it would fall, while within it, it remains bound. This tension between the individual and the structures that support and contain it becomes a point of departure for IChi Go’s choreography. 

The title Caryatid – 人柱 refers to the caryatid, the female figure bearing the weight of an architectural structure, a motif that has long occupied an important place in Azade Köker’s work. In Schwankende Säulen (Tottering Columns, 2025–2026), thirteen tall paper columns sway lightly in the space. They support no roof. Instead, strands of paper emerge from their tops, descend to the floor and intertwine with one another like stolons. The bearing figure becomes part of a larger network, connected to and supported by others.  

In Caryatid – 人柱, these relationships are translated into movement and into shifting constellations between the three performers. IChi Go appears as the “I”, while the other bodies form, extend, and transform the network around her. Weight passes between bodies; one body holds another and is in turn held. 

IChi Go’s practice moves across contemporary dance, voice, music, and interdisciplinary performance, with a particular focus on embodied improvisation and collaborative forms. Born in Kamakura and based in Berlin, she has been a member of the experimental opera company NOVOFLOT since 2014 and has increasingly brought movement, voice, and music together in her performances. In 2026, she performed voice and movement in Terry Riley’s In C at Hamburger Bahnhof – Nationalgalerie der Gegenwart. 

Her work has also developed through sustained encounters with contemporary visual art. Earlier this year, she choreographed and performed Asawa Reflective Dance at the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao in dialogue with the work of Ruth Asawa. She has collaborated extensively with artist Isaac Chong Wai, appearing as principal performer and dance leader in Falling Reversely at the 60th Venice Biennale in 2024 and leading approximately 90 participants in The Horizon – We Can Never Touch at the Neue Nationalgalerie during Berlin Art Week 2025. 

Caryatid – 人柱 continues this engagement with the relationship between the moving body, the artwork, and the space around it. Conceived as an open encounter within Köker’s exhibition, each performance lasts approximately 20 minutes, and visitors are welcome to enter and leave the space throughout.

Photos above by Katja Lotter.