Waiting to hear from you

2022

video installation (screen 10min, monitor 18min.)

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1st. MIMOCA EYE, Marugame Genichiro-Inokuma Museum of Contemporary Art (Kagawa), Individual Selection Committee Member's Prize, Mizuki Takahashi Prize.

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In July 2022, I visited Kagawa, the place of my birth, for the first time in several years. I went to the Shodoshima 88 temple pilgrimage, burning wooden prayer sticks in the gomadaki rite, and then I visited the house I used to come to every summer from outside. At the end of the journey, I headed for the hospital. However, due to measures to prevent infection, I was not allowed to meet her directly, and I had to see her through a video call using a tablet from the visitation room. It had been four years since she stopped speaking. In the years since she had shut herself away from the world, we had more opportunities to have virtual meetings, and speaking to each other through the small window of a screen had become part of our daily lives. I spoke to her several times through this window, and there was a moment when I thought I saw her smile, but I never caught her eye.
Last summer, a man died in my town. I heard that he had been suspected of mental illness and had suffered from it for many years. His father, who lived with him, kept him confined at home because "it would cause trouble if I let him out," and he never talked about his son's existence outside. Until about 1950, Japan had a system of private confinement, in which mentally disabled persons were kept at their homes in accordance with the law. In Japanese society, where there is still a strong belief that family members are responsible for the problems within the home, their and families' voices may have few chances to be heard outside as an SOS.
I would like to share my voice. And after I speak, I pause and wait for your response.

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sound design : Nobuhiko Hayashi

cooperarion : Tatsushi Kawanabe