Current

The Voice of Inconstant Savage
[Commissioned Work] This multifaceted, polyphonic and immersive sound installation by Yasuhiro Morinaga establishes a historical encounter between Portuguese culture and Japan, memories and myths that remain and coexist with other cultures of the Amazon. Commissioned for the Engawa – Japanese Contemporary Art Season programme , The Voice of Inconstant (2023) 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’.

Cinema

The Cloud of Unknowing
The Cloud of Unknowing
Ho Tzu Nyen’s multichannel video installation The Cloud of Unknowing (2011) explores the expansive subject of the representation of the elusive and amorphous cloud. Inspired by philosopher Hubert Damisch’s thesis on the form’s aesthetics and symbolism, A Theory of /Cloud/: Toward a History of Painting, first published in French in 1972, Ho’s work incorporates a set of eight compartmentalized vignettes, each centered on a character that stands for the cloud’s representation in historically significant Western European artworks by artists including Caravaggio, Francisco de Zurbarán, Antonio da Correggio, Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini, Andrea Mantegna, and René Magritte, as well as the Eastern landscapes of Mi Fu and Wen Zhengming. This incorporation and blending of cultural, historical, and philosophical references, both Eastern and Western, is prevalent in Ho’s practice, which references painting (EARTH, 2009), pop music (The Bohemian Rhapsody Project, 2006), literature (The King Lear Project, 2008) and philosophy (Zarathustra: A Film for Everyone and No One, 2009).

Performing arts

⼩㞍健太+森永泰弘: 「ころり」
記憶を呼び起こすパフォーマティブ・インスタレーション これまでの創作のベースにある「記憶」を「記録」するというテーマをもとに、ある場所をおとずれた際に現れる「風情」という感覚へアプローチする試み。それぞれのアーティストが観察・収集した「場」を劇場にもちより、空間からもたらされる感覚と想像を手がかりに、共存することがなかった場所たちの再構築を図ります。クリエイションの場に観客を招き入れることで、さらなる融合と解体をはかりながら、人間と環境が行き来する「パフォーマティブ・インスタレーション」の在りようを導きだします。

Performing arts

The Seen and Unseen
One day, Tantri comes to realise she will not have much more time with her bedridden twin brother Tantra, who is losing his senses one by one. Grappling with this reality, Tantri finds solace in the deepness and the darkness of night. Under a full moon, she dances, finding herself between reality and imagination, loss and hope. Tantri experiences a magical and emotional journey into womanhood that eclipses Tantra’s fading life. The Seen and Unseen (Sekala Niskala) is a new performance work, a cross-cultural collaboration between artists from Indonesia, Japan and Australia. Inspired by Indonesian filmmaker Kamila Andini’s film The Seen and Unseen, which has been described as “a truly singular film” (Cinema Scope) and “a haunting and hypnotic interpretation…rooted in Balinese arts and culture” (Variety). This dance-theatre production is a visual feast incorporating dance, live music and song, and features an electronic score, creating a blend of traditional Balinese dance movement with a contemporary approach to theatre. Driving this production is the Balinese philosophy of Sekala Niskala (“the seen and unseen”), a fundamentally dualist spiritual structure that describes what we cannot see as having equal value to what is seen in the world.