concrete

Performing arts
LIFE ENTANGLED
The collaborative project between Yasuhiro Morinaga and Robert Millis proposes a world in which thought and representation are not the exclusive privilege of humans, but also grants prominence to ecosystems and non-human entities. By highlighting the intricate and often invisible connections between humans and the non-human world, this work invites a broader and more inclusive perspective on life, agency, and interdependence, exploring the fundamental question of all life: what does it mean to live? At a time when climate change and natural disasters are driving the world into an unprecedented crisis, we are confronted with the limits of an attitude that views nature and ecosystems as mere exploitable resources. Life Entangled — The Secret Story of Shellac is a performative sound installation that explores the cultural relationship between objects and humans through a multidimensional narrative centered on shellac , a natural resin derived from the insect Kerria lacca , a material deeply rooted in our daily lives.

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.

Outland ethnologies
HOKKAIDO WITH & LIJIANG WITH/OUT
The experiments presented here, Hokkaido With and Lijiang With/Out are, if you will believe it, connected. Think of them as an evolution of inquiries into an artist’s presence or absence in an unfamiliar place, built on both doubt and confidence, both a lack and a surfeit of context. Both projects put pressure on artists by putting them in difficult situations, but by working directly with these problems, the projects and the artists open up new possibilities in their unusual approaches.

Field recordings
Yasuhiro Morinaga presents Field Recording Series Slamet Gundono [Surakarta, Indonesia]
Slamet Gundono [Surakarta, Indonesia]
インドネシアはジャワ島のスラカルタで活動するパフォーマーのスラマット・グンドノとフィールドレコーディングした作品です。スラマット・グンドノはジャワ島を代表するパフォーマー、音楽家、影絵師。インドネシアの伝統文化を探求しながら独自のユーモアと風刺で、物語の事実/虚構を混ぜ合わせながら現代社会の様相をユニークな音楽として歌うユニークなアーティストです。森永とグンドノは2011年に公演された振付家である北村明子のダンス作品『To Belong』で知り合いになって以来、幾度となくコミュニケーションを交わし、今回のレコーディング・プロダクションにたどり着きました。二本のマイクロフォンでグンドノの歌声と楽器、そしてクンダンやゲンデルといったインドネシアの楽器演奏を一回録り(グンドノの音楽はその日の彼の気分で音楽が全く変わってしまう)で実現させ、一切のポスト・プロダクションを省くことで、フィールドでの彼を取り巻いた環境を如実に表す作品となっています。