Coco Capitán ココ・カピタン

From October until December 2022, Coco Capitán lived in Kyoto as part of KYOTOGRAPHIE’s artist-in-residency program. During that time she created her series Ookini, about teenagers and young people living in Kyoto. Capitán used her film camera to portray people from all kinds of backgrounds, from a future kama master, son of kyogen performer, daughters of doll maker, zen monk students, maiko, and other people whose daily lives are rooted in traditional culture, to college and high school students and other young people she met by chance as she rode her bicycle around Kyoto. To everyone who agreed to help her with her series, Capitán expressed her gratitude with the Kansai phrase for Thank you: Ookini!

In addition to fine art, Capitán collaborates with various fashion brands and companies on commercial work. Using her freedom of expression as an artist, she does not shy away from working in the capitalist marketplace – on the contrary, she says this approach has helped broaden her range of possibilities and expression. She works in a variety of genres and media, including painting, photography, and poetry, and actively experiments with diverse methods to connect directly with her audience, as if to provide everyone with their own unique entrance to her body of work.

The young generation of Kyoto, whom Capitán photographed freely, in her own way. Individuality and cooperation, made visible by conventions embedded in tradition and fashion. Is this not the nature of communities where people accept each other? Capitán’s writings, her unvarnished thoughts and feelings, penned without regard for any rules, may gently open the lid of the hearts of people who hesitate to express their own feelings.