Born in Kagoshima in 1968 and lives in Akita. Graduated from the lacquer work department of Kyoto City University of Arts and Music, and the Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Science (IAMAS) in Gifu. Much of Takamine’s work awakens a feeling of non-verbal compassion and sympathy in the viewer through installations, media art techniques, and performances that emphasize the bi-directional relationship between a work and its audience. His practice also deals with issues related to American imperialism, the sexuality of handicapped persons, and issues facing foreign residents in Japan, highlighting the complex relationships between authority and subject, those implicated within a particular situation, and those who are not, often prompting the viewer towards a process of self-questioning. His works have been highly acclaimed both in Japan and abroad. Takamine participated in the Venice Biennale in 2003, and his solo show “Too Far to See” toured three Japanese museums between 2011 and 2012. He is also the author of “A Lover from Korea” (Kawade Shobo Shinsha,2008), a novel that examines issues related to identity and nationalism through his own personal relationship with an ethnic Korean woman resident in Japan, and an incident that took place at a manganese mine in Kyoto, where Takamine wrote the work."