concrete

Installation
The Voice of Inconstant Savage
Commissioned for the Engawa – Japanese Contemporary Art Season programme organized by Calouste Gulbenkian Museum's Modern Art Center, The Voice of Inconstant Savage is an immersive installation that superimposes a prayer inspired by the story of a 16th-century Portuguese missionary, a chant from a Kakure-Kirishitan (hidden Christians) prayer – a religion rooted in Nagasaki Prefecture –, a chant from the Karawara spirits of the Awá indigenous people – who live in the Amazon rainforest – and a chorus of Western Gregorian chant. Morinaga questions the position of the aesthetics of inconstancy in relation to the discourse of the “savage” that modern society confronts.

Field recordings
Sombat Simla: Master Of Bamboo Mouth Organ
Simla is known in Thailand as one of the greatest living players of the khene, the ancient bamboo mouth organ particularly associated with Laos but found throughout East and Southeast Asia. His virtuosic and endlessly inventive renditions of traditional and popular songs have earned him the title ‘the god of khene’, and he is known for his innovative techniques and ability to mimic other instruments and non-musical sound, including, as a writer for the Bangkok Post describes, ‘the sound of a train journey, complete with traffic crossings and the call of barbecue chicken vendors’.

Event/Workshop
Yamagata Documentary Dojo
In recognition of the city’s vibrant activities in the field of cinema, including YIDFF, Yamagata was designated City of Film by UNESCO Creative Cities Network in 2017. The city becomes home to a new initiative called Yamagata Documentary Dojo, an international artist-in-residence program. Four Southeast Asian filmmakers will reside at the Zao hot spring resort for four weeks in order to review and strengthen their documentary projects in post-production.

Cinema
Five to Nine
5 to 9 comprises four short films that transpire across 5pm to 9am on the evening of the historic Brazil-Germany match at World Cup 2014, spanning intimate vignettes of unrequited love and final meetings. In China, a young migrant worker has saved 3,000 RMB to finally spend a night with a middle-aged prostitute, but she plans to leave the city the same night instead. In Singapore, a local teacher and his paramour from China are out for a rendezvous, submitting the fate of their future to the result of the football match. The Japanese counterpart centres on a porno-projectionist collecting debts from the punks for the poor. The film concludes in Thailand with the filming of the last scene of a sci-fi movie. Behind the camera, the director is suspicious of his leading actor and the actress who is also his wife.