concrete

Cinema
Siege – A Closed Off Man
In 1935, the First High School (旧制第一高等学校) was relocated from Hongo to Komaba, where the students were separated from others and enhanced their homogeneity as First High School students by holing up on the campus. However, in an increasingly intense World War II, it was no longer possible to maintain the identity of the First High School. In the consciousness of a student, “I”, who has been devoting himself to research in a desire to identify with the First High School students, the image of First High School in the Komaba Campus era appears.

Event/Workshop
Gong Therapy
Raw and remixed field recordings of gong orchestras throughout southeast Asia. Recorded, assembled, and remixed by Yasuhiro Morinaga for Radio is a Foreign Country. Yasuhiro Morinaga is a sound artist and filmmaker living in Tokyo. After graduating Tokyo University of the Arts, Yasuhiro has carried out field recording expeditions documenting the origins of musical instruments and the soundscapes of shamanic healing rituals throughout southeast Asia (see www.the-concrete .org). PLAYLIST Ambience: (Toraja group), Rambu Solo (Funeral ceremony) from Toraja, Sulawesi Island Tau Dou / (Tau Humba group), Sumba Island Harvesting / (Tau Humba group), Sumba Island Funeral / (M’nong + Krung groups), Mondalkiri, Northeast Cambodia Ma Badong Chanting / (Toraja group), Toraja, Sulawesi Island Gong Practice by Yasuhiro Morinaga / Bali Island Manang Sirang - chanting / (Dayak Iban group) West Kalimantan, Borneo Island Cut the Bamboo, / (M’nong Prang group), Central highland of Vietnam Hail / (Ede group), Central Highlands of Vietnam Guarding Rice Seeds / (Makassar group) Makassar, Sulawesi Island Daily Routine for everyday life / (Krung group), Ratanakiri, Northeast Cambodia Hedung Dance / (Lamaholot group), Flores Island Balangbang / (Kanakanaey group), Northern Luzon Island A Month after the Death / (Bahnar group), Central Highland of Vietnam Sole Oha Ritual / (Lamaholot group), Flores Island Hsaing Waing Remixes by Yasuhiro Morinaga, Yangon, Myanmar Ambience: (Toraja group), Rambu Solo (Funeral ceremony) from Toraja, Sulawesi Island

Concert
Anabiosis Passage
"Anabiosis Passage" is a concert in which media technologies creates pioneering music based on Indonesian music cultures including the traditional, pop, and modern music. This unique work stems from "To Belong", the modern dance work by choreographer, Akiko Kitamura, in which Yasuhiro Morinaga takes part as a music director. "Anabiosis Passage" features sounds which Morinaga fieldrecorded in Indonesia, and musicians he met then. This work interprets the Indonesian culture in a modern context by dealing with gamelan, Kroncong, and Hip Hop music and local environmental sounds of Indonesia. This work also deals with the Indonesian musical instruments including the style of rendition and narrative literature as motifs, and creates a modern ritual space based on media technologies. Morinaga from Japan takes the roles of music director and electronic manipulator. Musicians of a string quartet and a pianist are also invited to this work from Japan. "Anabiosis Passage" is definitely a work in which tradition and modernity interact with one another between Indonesia and Japan.  

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.

Event/Workshop
RECIPROCAL RESIDENCIES
Reciprocal Residencies: Lijiang/Hokkaido consists of two reciprocating residencies between two Japanese and three Chinese artists in two rural settings. Curated by Jay Brown and Yasuhiro Morinaga, the residency is developing working methods to make the most of our disciplinary differences and time together. The participants are: Yao Chunyang, Wei Wei (aka VAVABOND), Li Jianhong, Marina Tanaka, Chiharu MK, Yasuhiro Morinaga, Jay Brown, Lijiang Studio, Tobiu Art Camp. This project enjoys the support of the Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation and the Asian Cultural Council. What does it take to make art while being responsible for small children? To that end, we titled our September 14th performance at Tobiu Art Festival “Art With/Out Small Children”, and it seems this will become the title for the Hokkaido segment of the project. Another, similar, working title for the project that may become the title for the Lijiang segment is “We Are All Great Parents.” We are foregrounding this issue because of the social, systemic, logistical obstacles for artists, nearly always mothers, to continue developing and presenting their art while raising small children (not to mention working a day job). Nearly all the artists in the project are in the middle of such challenges. Furthermore, we all have long-term interest in exploring ways of working “in the field”. Each of us has 10, 15, or more years of developing their own experiences with this question, an engagement which has formed our understanding of artistic research. What could each of us do in a totally unfamiliar place? How do we deal with certain inescapable dynamics, such as countenancing a history of cultural erasure, tourist development, the cosmologies of others, or the ontologies of places? There will be more to come on this project, but for now some snapshots of our time in Hokkaido: