Ai Futaki

Ai Futaki defines herself as a messenger of the sea. A double freediving Guinness world record holder, she is an ocean ambassador of Japan’s Ministry of the Environment. As an artist, she aims to explore the diversity of oceans from an interdisciplinary standpoint, with an accent on the connections between humans and water.

Her images, texts, and video studies have appeared in television programmes, advertising, and exhibitions around the world. She has been a TEDx Tokyo speaker on several occasions and participated in the documentary series Precious Blue on Japanese television. She has also worked with artists like the designer Issey Miyake and the photographer Isabel Muñoz. Her photographic work has been shown in several exhibitions, notable amongst which are “Naka-Ima” (Here and Now), which was held in Madrid and Tokyo. Her project “Coexistence”, exhibited in the Tokyo Cervantes Institute, is a photographic exploration placing humans in a horizontal relationship with all the other beings with which they share territory.