Archives 1999-2001

Until a chunk of ice hanging from the ceiling meltsJinya Imai

--When did you first meet Jinya Imai and Yoichi Sato?

　I first met Yoichi Sato when I was dancing contemporary dance. 　
　Maimi Sato, the artistic director of Kanagawa Arts Theatre, brought in Pina Bausch, Forsythe, Rosas, etc., whom no one in Japan had ever seen live before.
I was able to dance and have workshops with these top-class dancers whom I admired so much. 　
　One day, he introduced me to an audition for a French director, Jerome Belle. I was chosen from among many famous contemporary dancers and danced in a solo piece. I think they appreciated the physicality of Noh that I had cultivated since I was a child. 　
　In Kanagawa, there were other theater productions by Tadashi Kato and Kazumi Kushida, Brecht and Beckett, which were also interesting and I was on stage for both dance and theater. Then there was always Yoichi Sato in the audience.

--Yoichi Sato came to see Jinya Imai as a guest. I see. And then?

　And so you began to create new works, not only Noh, but also learning and fusing contemporary dance. 　
　Then, Yoichi Sato started an event called "The Night of the Mononoke Gathering," a gathering of all kinds of strange performers at Galerie Le Deco in Shibuya, and I was invited to participate in it with a performance group called Megalo Theatre, which I lead.
　Looking back, I think it was unusual for a gallery owner and curator to have such a keen sense of smell, to be devoted to dance and music that pursued physicality.
And at his own place, he said, "Do what you like.
You liked dance and music as art.

300 Days Gallery
Timed Limit Art Program
Gallery ≠ Gallery
 
In all of Yoichi Sato's galleries, we exhibited Jinya Imai's art works and performed a new work by Megalo Theatre. 　We also did a lot of street performances outside of the gallery, and the Harajuku police told us to stop.

--What kind of street performances?

　Dozens of people waiting at the intersection of Laforet, when the light changes from red to green, with a fanfare and the sound of a pistol to start the show! It's an ironic race against the competitive life of capitalist society, involving pedestrians waiting at traffic lights.

And then there's Harajuku, where everyone comes dressed up, right? And then, you know, they judge them on their own, with a bunch of phony judges lining the streets with tags and telling passers-by how many points they pass, how many points they fail, how many points they fail. And that person is rejected! And then, you know, they would put a red sign in the middle of the intersection.

And then there were the red cones lined up in a row in the middle of the intersection, with a woman in kimono arranging flowers on the top of each cone, and ceremoniously watering them with a watering can. It was a performance that ironically expressed the destruction of the environment.

Gradually, these performances started to attract people, and they began to be covered by the media. Then there were always people who didn't like it. So, I was summoned by the Harajuku police, and Yoichi Sato and I went to the police station and yelled at them.
I went to the Harajuku police station and yelled at them, "This is an act of expression of artwork that we are doing as art. You have no right to stop art." "What do you know about art? And in the end, there was no retaliation. 　
　
　I protect people who express themselves, create an environment where they can express themselves, and create what I think is good from zero.
I create from scratch what I think is good.
And I was very protective of my own body. He was different from ordinary gallery owners and curators. 　
　He had the sense of creating new art together, without regard to the gallery's profit, profit, or prestige, all the way to the end. 　
　Looking back, it was the place where I had the most freedom as a performer and a director, the most free space.
Yoichi Sato had created and protected that space. 　

　The performance ended when a block of ice hanging from the ceiling melted and disappeared.
By means of a trick, you set off a time bomb. Time-limited.
The trick of "disappearing" actually gave birth to the most free expression.
The "disappearance" mechanism made me dance, and in turn, I was able to become free. 　

　Yoichi Sato wanted to write a script and perform it himself, so we rehearsed a two-person show at Gallery≠Gallery with Yoichi Sato as the director, but we didn't actually perform it.
I think it was the end of 2007 when we were rehearsing.

--That's a lot of work. And then?

　During the exhibition, when it was just the two of us, we didn't talk much, even if we thought the exhibition was not so good or very good. Even if I think the exhibit is not so good, or even if I think it is very good, I keep quiet. We are both silent in a mysterious way. Even if we didn't talk, I always felt the pressure of, "You understand, you understand, you understand, you understand.
It became like a contest of endurance, and it was like I was making my work just to get Yoichi Sato to say it was interesting.

Yoichi Sato liked poetry. Maybe that's why he was interested in my work.
I have been writing poems, letters, and making artworks with a focus on words for a long time.

I love Mallarmé, and when I told Yoichi Sato that when I went to France, I searched through the forest of Fontainebleau and went to Mallarmé's house, he was as happy as if it were his own.
Because we both had an understanding of Mallarmé's poetics and aesthetics.

Kakukoto the poem, retreat from beauty and power.

Not to be beautiful, not to have power.

Just writing there, kakukoto is art.

Is it possible to draw without beauty and power?

Is it possible to live without beauty and power?

I think that is what I wanted to create.

The ice hanging from the ceiling is melting. The ice hanging from the ceiling is melting, dripping.

There is no beauty or power.

Only time is flowing.

Eventually, that time comes to an end.
Until the last drop hits the ground... 　　

(Text by Ryoko Uchida)