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’.

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。

Cinema
The Mental Traveller
The Mental Traveller is a poetic reflection on the nature of remembrance. It navigates through the mental spaces of people consumed by memories of lost time.The film meditates on the passing of time, external behaviors, habitual patterns of thought and the sensorial realities of five mentally disordered men inside the psychiatric ward in Chanthaburi Province, east of Thailand, in which it is filmed. The film was conceived from the director’s connections to his parents and companions as they went through states of sickness, impending death, dementia, grief, and temporary insanity. At the same time it echoes upon the turbulent years of political upheavals and repercussions in Thailand, resulting the nation in a state of delirium, lunacy and trauma.

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