Support for Collaborative Creations between Japanese and International Artists
International Creations in Performing Arts 2023
- Adopted Projects
- Observer
About International Creations in Performing Arts
For 2023, the projects below were selected under competitive bidding.
ATAK
SHIBUYA Keiichiro & Justine EMARD, Appassionato (France)
Project Title: “Shibuya Keiichiro's Android Opera® ‘MIRROR’”
(c)Ayaka Endo
(c)Shin Suzuki
(c)Rémi Rière
Android Opera is a new form of opera with android singers, conceived and composed by SHIBUYA Keiichiro, who has been active in Japan and abroad working in various genres encompassing cutting-edge electronic music, piano solos, and film scores. This work, MIRROR (to be performed at the Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris), is based on the collaboration between an android, an orchestra, Buddhist music and chanting with 1,200 years of history, and electronic sounds that Shibuya unveiled at Expo 2020 Dubai in 2022. The android “Alter4,” which has been evolved further since the Dubai performance, will be joined by French orchestra Appassionato and visual artist Justine EMARD for an international coproduction with new staging and music.
Having made remarkable advances, the android will not only sing to music composed by Shibuya but also improvise its own melodies on the spot in response to the Buddhist chanting, with lyrics derived from interpretation of the chanted texts by AI chatbot ChatGPT, which is currently drawing attention worldwide. The android will also sing texts with the excerpts from The Possibility of an Island, written by French novelist Michel HOUELLEBECQ and Austrian philosopher Ludwig WITTGENSTEIN's last work On Certainty.
Visuals created by Emard, real-time projection of the android onto the screen, and lighting will also be synchronized with the music onstage to immerse the entire theater in sound and visuals.
By combining cutting-edge technology with traditional artforms, the work will explore a new model for harmony between humans and technology through art.
Performances: June 21-23, 2023 (Venue: Théâtre du Châtelet, Paris, France)
*For more details, please refer to the website of ATAK or the Théâtre du Châtelet.
Place and Narrative
ISHIGAMI Natsuki & Nuttamon PRAMSUMRAN (Thailand)
Project Title: Parallel Normalities ”Whispering Blue – I heard your voice from the back of a blue car"
Photo by Masashi Kuroha
Photo by Rinrada Pornsombutsatien
Parallel Normalities, coproduced by playwright ISHIGAMI Natsuki and playwright/artist Nuttamon PRAMSUMRAN, is an adaptation of the prototype version of the play Ao ni au that Ishigami, who works on site-specific theatrical and art projects using cities and communities as subject matter, produced in Kyoto in 2017.
Following joint study and residency by a team of Thai and Japanese artists in Dansai District, Loei Province, Thailand, and Shizuoka Prefecture, the work will be performed nonstop at Loei Art Fes 2023, to be held in Dansai District in July, over the course of about one week. Audiences will witness the performance of “normalities” by reading the play to be released by the previous day and showing up at a particular date, time, and place. Through this creative process and theatrical approach, the work will empower local narratives and help inhabitants of each place to rediscover the appeal and value of things regarded as “normal” or “mundane” where they live.
Performances: July 17-23, 2023 (Venue: various locations in Dansai District, Loei Province, Thailand)
*For more details, please refer to the Facebook page of the Prayoon for Art Foundation.
Kyoto International Performing Arts Festival Executive Committee
ARAKI Masamitsu, TSUKAHARA Yuya & Wichaya ARTAMAT (Thailand)
Project Title:“Juggle & Hide (Seven Whatchamacallits in Search of a Director) ”
Photo by Kai Maetani
Photo by Lieko Shiga
Photo by Bea Borgers
This stage project is a coproduction by Thailand-based director Wichaya ARTAMAT, who belongs to the theatrical company “For What Theatre,” with ARAKI Masamitsu as sound designer; and TSUKAHARA Yuya, who belongs to the performance group “contact Gonzo,” as dramaturge.
Artamat’s previous works have examined the relationship between politics, an individual’s upbringing, and artistic expression. He makes heavy use of props as metaphors for various incidents and people while referencing events in the political history of Thailand, reflecting a creative environment in which freedom of expression is far from guaranteed. In this work, there are no actors. Instead, the props serve as characters, and the story is one in which they rebel against the authoritarian ruler of the stage work, the director—in the case of this work, Artamat himself.
Artamat considers how he has forced meaning on them, and, in this work, allows them space to “respond.” His playful yet subversive approach to directing suggests ways of asking questions in order to overcome harsh and unreasonable situations: not only in regard to the Thai government, but also any individual or wider society that is unwittingly subsumed by larger authoritarian structures.
Performances: September 30 and October 1, 2023 (Venue: Auditorium, KYOTO ART CENTER)
*For more details, please refer to the website of the KYOTO EXPERIMENT.
Modern Puppet Center
SHIRAGA Momoko & Lattanakone INSISIENGMAY (Laos)
Project Title: “Asian Object Theater: Laos-Japan Collaboration among Deaf and Hearing Performers”
(c)Kitagawa Sisters
SHIRAGA Momoko (leader of Momonga Complex, Japan), a choreographer and director who creates new spaces through flexible ideas and configuration, will join Khao Niew (Laos), a theater company specializing in puppet theater with collaboration between deaf and hearing performers, and Deaf Puppet Theater Hitomi (Japan) for an international coproduction that aims at new creation through puppets, objects, and human bodies.
The two theater companies have continued to search for ways to expand the possibilities of expression, including holding joint workshops to share each other's creative backgrounds since 2018. Shiraga became involved in the coproduction following a conversation with Lattanakone INSISIENGMAY, the leader of the theater company Khao Niew, in 2021, as well as after directing a performance by Deaf Puppet Theater Hitomi in 2022. The collaboration will create a new world by treating the spiritual culture of Laos, where animistic spirituality remains strong, as something universal that lies dormant within modern society.
Performance: November 26, 2023 (Venue: KAGURAZAKA SESSION HOUSE)
*For more details, please refer to the website of the FOUNDATION MODERN PUPPET CENTER.
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