After the Symposium

2015
Sound Film Installation

The main building of the Tokyo Metropolitan Teien Art Museum in Shirokane in Tokyo’s Minato Ward was constructed in 1933, and is known for its Art Deco style architectural beauty. During the war it was used as the residence of Prince Asaka Yasuhiko, a General in the Japanese Imperial Army, and post-war as the official residence of Foreign Minister Yoshida Shigeru (as Yoshida was also Prime Minister, it in effect was the Prime Minister’s residence). As a site of Japanese modern politics and diplomatic negotiations, this historic building, designated as a nationally Important Cultural Property, is taken as a vessel of memory in this work. It presents a fictionalized account based on classified documents from Japan and the United States made public after 50 years, depicting three intersecting periods of time—the past, the present and the future—that could have taken place there. The audience wears headphones and freely walks through the building, and by listening to the conversations which could have taken place between people existing there and positioning themselves within spaces still containing relics of the time, connect themselves with the history and the future, or, experience “after the banquet” as audience/bystanders/characters who may have been complicit in decisions of the state.

饗宴のあと  アフター・ザ・シンポジウム

2015年
サウンド映像インスタレーション

東京都港区白金台、1933年に建設されたアール・デコ様式の建築美で知られる東京都庭園美術館の本館は、戦中は陸軍大将だった朝香宮鳩彦王の邸宅として、戦後は吉田茂によって外務大臣公邸（吉田首相が外相を兼務していたので実質的には総理大臣仮公邸）として使用されてきた。日本近代政治・外交交渉が行われてきた、国の重要文化財に指定されているこの歴史的建物を「記憶の器」と捉え、50年を経て公開された日米の機密文書を元に、そこにあり得たかも知れない過去、現在、未来の3つの時間が交錯するフィクションを創出。観客はヘッドフォンを装着して自由に館内を回遊し、そこに存在するかも知れない人物達の会話に耳を傾け、当時の調度品が残る空間に身を置くことで、自らも歴史と未来を繋ぐ、あるいは国家の決定に加担する「観客・傍観者／登場人物」として「饗宴のあと」を体感する。