concrete

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’.

Performing arts
To Belong
"To Belong / Suwung" is an Indonesia-Japan international collaborative project, in which the choreographer, Akiko Kitamura takes a challenging role.  This project, based on elaborative researches since 2010,  was performed in Asian countries and earned high evaluations. The latest version of "To Belong / Suwung" was premiered at the Aoyama Round Theatre in Tokyo. Artists, taking active roles in dances, music, and visual arts got together from each country to perform in this project. Dialogues among generations, contemporary dance, traditional dance, martial art, backbones of each artist, and interactions with keen bodily senses generated intensive magnetic fields. The artists successfully reached the creation of new stage world by unifying the Indonesian tradition, mystic energy, and the modern expression.

Event/Workshop
善知鳥の伝説
青森に根ざした新たなアートを探求していくプロジェクト「青森EARTH」。津軽半島を主なフィールドと、アーティストと参加者による「ワークショップ」とその「成果発表」を通じて、青森の土地の新しいイメージを発信します。青森県に根付いていた民話『善知鳥』をテーマに、テクストから読み解く音を記録し、検証しながら作品として成果発表することを目指します。

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.