Home > Arts and Cultural Exchange > Main Activities > Fiscal Year 2009-2010 > 
in Europe
Arts and Cultural Exchange
in Europe
As part of Performing Arts Abroad Programme, in this Autumn, Japan Foundation implements the European 5 cities tour of 
, a new sound, light and dance performance.
Photo by Hiraku Ikeda
The new sound, light and dance performance, true is a stage performance piece that explores the relationship between the brain and the reality we face, and is, performed by two performers.
The white-floor stage is sandwiched by metal scaffoldings on both sides, has an circular truss 8 meters in diameter up in the ceiling to hang LED lights, a screen in the back onto which computer-generated graphic images are projected; and a table that looks like a simple, regular wooden table, although a bit bulky, but is in fact loaded with a number of mechanical devices, and works as the main“ neural center ” of the stage.
Photo by Yohta Kataoka
On top of the table are some usual things like books, a photograph, a globe, cups and glasses, etc, and the two performers play with them, on, through and around the table. As for lighting, the digitally controlled LED technology enables instant color changes and high-speed synchronization for a whole -new lighting experience. For sound, oscillators are attached to the metal scaffoldings on either sides of the stage and shake them in synch with music and the performers ’ actions to enhance the acoustic experience of the audience.
Photo by Yohta Kataoka
Using myoelectric sensors attached to the performers’ bodies, the above effects as well as visuals are linked and synched to, and even controlled by, the performers’ actions at amazingly high resolution levels that are only possible with today’s advanced technology. Filled with such new kind of light and sound, the theater space itself becomes the extension of the performers’ bodies that repeatedly flickers and vibrates to provide the audience with a totally new sensory experience.
true was created and premiered in the summer of 2007 at Japan ’s Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM] by a group of ten artists from different fields under the direction of Takayuki Fujimoto of Kyoto collective Dumb Type. The full stage set and systems were built inside YCAM’s Studio B where many experiments were made for about a month before the world premiere on September 1, 2007.
Photo by Yohta Kataoka
Supported by the Agency for Cultural Affairs of Japan (bunkacho), true is one of the first works in Japan to be co-produced by artists and three public art centers and theatres: 21st Century Art Museum, kanazawa, Yokohama Redbrick Warehouse and YCAM.
This tag-team production allowed a week for the piece to be revised and restaged in December 2007 at the 21st Century Museum, kanazawa and then at Yokohama Red Brick House. Then in 2008, true was toured at the Esplanade Theatre in Singapore and Japan Society in New York.
This European tour would be a premiere to show true for European audiences. In conjunction with the performance tour, three of core members, Takayuki Fujimoto, Tsuyoshi Shirai, Takao Kawaguchi, undertake Refined Colours workshop. Working with LED lighting systems, they will provide a very unique opportunity for participants to broaden their horizon towards the integration of body and technology.
Website: 
Performing Arts Network Japan Website/ Artist Interview
Takayuki Fujimoto:
Takao Kawaguchi:
Tour Schedule
UK
| Newcastle | Dates | September 19 - 21, 2009 |
| Venue | *Refined Colors Workshop |
Netherlands
| Amsterdam | Dates | September 25 - 26, 2009 |
| Venue | ||
| Eindhoven | Date | September 29, 2009 |
| Venue |
Germany
| Düsseldorf | Dates | October 03 - 04, 2009 |
| Venue | ||
| Frankfurt | Dates | October 09 - 10, 2009 |
| Venue |
France
| Paris | Dates | October 15 - 17, 2009 |
| Venue | The Japan Cultural Institute in Paris |
Organised by The Japan Foundation as part of its Performing Arts Abroad Programme.
In cooperation with
Embassy of Japan in the Netherlands
Consulate-General of Japan, Duesseldorf
Consulate-General of Japan, Frankfurt am Main
The Japan Cultural Institute in Cologne
The Japan Cultural Institute in Paris
The Japan Foundation, London
Saison Foundation (support for works of Tsuyoshi Shirai)
Tour coordination (Netherlands and Germany): Van Baasbank & Baggerman BV
In prior to European tour, will be shown at Theater Tram, Tokyo on 6-9 August 2009
a new sound, light and dance performance
70 mins (no intermission)
Creation members
| Direction/ Lighting Design | Takayuki Fujimoto (dumb type) |
| Choreography/ Dance | Tsuyoshi Shirai (AbsT/baneto) |
Choreography/ Text /Dance |
Takao Kawaguchi (dumb type) |
| Sound/Video/ Visual Design | Takuya Minami (Softpad) |
| Sound/Oscillation/ Programming | Daito Manabe |
| Video/Programming/ Web | Satoshi Horii (rhizomatiks) |
| Table Design/ Mechanics | Seiichi Saito (rhizomatiks) Motoi Ishibashi (DGN) |
| Myoelectric sensing/ Vibration mechanism support |
Masaki Teruoka (VPP) |
| Costume Design | Noriko Kitamura |
| Production manager | Koichiro Takagi (Hi Wood) |
| Stage manager | So Ozaki (dumb type), Takuro Iwata (YCAM InterLab) |
| Technical supports | YCAM InterLab, Color Kinetics Japan Incorporated, |
| Producers | Yamaguchi Center of Arts and Media [YCAM] |
A piece was commissioned by and created through a residency at Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM] |
|
| Special thanks | Alfred Birnbaum, Naomi Ota, Kyoko Koyama (Piano), Hal-Oh Togashi (Piano), Jonathan M. Hall, Sarah Teasley |
|
|
For further enquiries, please contact to:
The Japan Foundation
Performing Arts Section, Arts and Culture Department
Contact: Konno (Ms) Tel: +81 (0)3-5369-6063 Fax: +81 (0)3-5369-6038