Overview
Inter-Resonance: Inter-Organics, Japanese Performance and Sound Art will focus on performance and sound-based installations that imagine new ecologies of nature and materiality. This exhibition is the second iteration of the Sharjapan project, which is a four-year collaboration with Yuko Hasegawa, Artistic Director of the Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo; Professor at Tokyo Universtiy of the Arts; and curator of Sharjah Biennal 11 (2013). Participating artists are Eitetsu Hayashi, Yuko Mohri, Mirai Moriyama, Tomoko Sauvage, Keiichiro Shibuya and Min Tanaka.
Reflecting the links between individual agency and collective human-like relationality, Yuko Mohri's project comprises a group of self-playing ready-mades that, like her other works, convey the intangible energies of everyday life. Sound artist Tomoko Sauvage’s installation features an amplified sound recording of a large block of slowly melting ice, situating the oft-marginalised experiences of listening and hearing alongside the more conventional visuals of the looming threat of climate change.
Musical performances include traditional Japanese drumming by Eitetsu Hayashi, which is highly technical and sophisticated yet also deeply affecting for the fundamental visceral, physical and primal senses. Inter-Resonance: Inter-Organics also presents an android opera by Keiichiro Shibuya, which is conducted by a humanoid with artificial intelligence dubbed ‘Alter3’. This performance explores the relationship between terror and beauty and humanity's fear of being made redundant in the future.
Focusing on movements of the body, Mirai Moriyama questions what we truly see through an experiential performance contrasting blindness and sight. Min Tanaka, on the other hand, adapts to his surroundings and improvises his performances through movements created in response to a particular environment.
Introducing the unique Japanese philosophy of animism– which imbues respect for the mutual relationships between human and non-human beings in contemporary art—this selection of installations and performances considers the past, present and future of human and non-human realms.
