Mirai Moriyama × Toshiki Okada Performance Project
in a silent way
Actor/dancer, Mirai Moriyama and playwright/theater director, Toshiki Okada collaborate for the first time on a performance project, creating and presenting a piece developed during their residence on Naoshima over one summer.
Collaboration by Mirai Moriyama and Toshiki Okada
Curation by Yuko Hasegawa
Dates：
August 23, 2016 (Tue) 14:00 open / 14:30 start
August 24, 2016 (Wed) 14:00 open / 14:30 start
August 25, 2016 (Thu) 14:00 open / 14:30 start
August 26, 2016 (Fri) 12:30 open / 13:00 start, and 15:30 open / 16:00 start
August 27, 2016 (Sat) 12:30 open / 13:00 start, and 15:30 open / 16:00 start
August 28, 2016 (Sun) 12:30 open / 13:00 start, and 15:30 open / 16:00 start
August 29, 2016 (Mon) 14:00 open / 14:30 start
*performance duration tentatively planned about 70 minutes.
Venue：Benesse House Museum（Naoshima）
*Tickets for the performance have been sold out. No on-the-day tickets will be available.
About "in a silent way"
Message from the curator
Curator：Yuko Hasegawa
The idea of collaboration between playwright/theater director, Toshiki Okada, and actor/dancer, Mirai Moriyama, came to me when they both participated in the art and performance exhibition "Seeking New Genealogies," at the Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (2014). The intention of this exhibition was to trace the "genealogies" of physical performances such as drama and dance, exploring their origins and future trajectories. In one of the "genealogies," there is a style of performance in which ordinary memories and actions are subtly transformed into works of art. Okada and Moriyama both belong to that line, each searching for new means of expression.
Toshiki Okada's blend of unconventional language and physical expression is the keystone of his work at his theatrical company "chelfitsch." He focuses on the vernacular speech styles and manners of today's youth, which are sometimes judged to be loose and careless. Through exaggeration, repetition, and displacement of the characters, he creates tense, realistic representations. He once said, "Have them dance with words," which explains the taut, antagonistic relationship between the movement of the bodies on his stage, and the playwright's script.
Mirai Moriyama is a dual-sided performer: he is a film and stage actor, as well as a modern dancer specializing in the abstract. He has acted in a great variety of roles, with a special gift for physical expression, including his portrayals of non-human forms, such as insects, animals and robots. With his unique talents, Moriyama has always hoped to integrate the spoken word, gesture, and dance in a unique way, and has been interested in Okada's work for its bold yet meticulous reinterpretation of everyday physical expression.
The idea behind the art projects of "Benesse Art Site Naoshima" is the revolutionary idea of sending out cultural messages, not from the center of Japan, but from the remote islands of the Seto Inland Sea. The performance "in a silent way" will take place in the unique cylinder-shaped space at Benesse House Museum on Naoshima. The concept of the performance, which opens with the soft-spoken voice of a revolutionist, has been inspired by the revolutionary vision of Soichiro Fukutake, the founder of Benesse Art Site Naoshima.
The audience will have voyaged over water from their ordinary lives to reach the island. There, they will encounter the voice of one man echoing in a cylindrical space (Is it perhaps a ship, or a laboratory?). Sensuous, dogmatic, smooth and hypnotic, the man's words are hard to resist. Like the sounds of a poetry reading or the mesmerizing speech of a dictator, his thoughts will permeate the minds of the audience.
By the end of the performance, how will a "revolution" be brought about? My purpose in curating this performance is to see what the collaboration of these two Alchemists of Time will produce.
Contact：
Information about Setouchi Triennale
TEL +81-(0)87-813-2244(Takamatsu Port General Information Center)
