Japanese dancers/artists meet dancers/artists in Vietnam
The Japan Foundation Center for Cultural Exchange in Vietnam, in cooperation with Arabesque Dance Company, proudly presents a multi-media dance/theatre project, “A flower” & “Chronicles of a soundless dream” on 15 & 16 September in Ho Chi Minh City.
Mikuni Yanaihara & Keisuke Takahashi (Off-Nibroll, Japan) and Tiffany Chung (Vietnam/USA) were first brought together by Theatre Works Singapore for its 2007 edition of the Flying Circus Project. Immediately felt a profound artistic connection with one another, they have then begun to exchange ideas towards potential collaborative projects. The first result of this long-term process is an exhibition & performance entitled Fukawaga Shokudo, which was supported by Art Matters New York and Fukagawa Tokyo Modan Kan Gallery in early 2011.
This multi-media dance/theatre project is their second collaboration in which off-Nibroll’s and Tiffany Chung’s performance works will be presented to the Vietnamese audience for the first time.
Their energetic and thought-provoking performances bring together contemporary dancers from Japan and Vietnam on one stage, to further explore the concept of human struggle, endurance, life, death and everything in between.
We hope that their collaboration will develop further through this project and the audience will witness the stimulating fusion of dance/theater/visual arts created by artists in Japan and Vietnam.
The performances will be conducted at Le Thanh Theater (25 Phan Phu Tien, District 5, HCMC) from 19:30 on both Thursday 15 & Friday 16 September. The free tickets are available at Galerie Quynh (65 De Tham, District 1, HCMC, 08-3836-8019) from Thursday 8 September.
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About the artists
■ Off-Nibroll
The visual director Keisuke Takahashi and choreographer Mikuni Yanaihara formed off-Nibroll which mostly deals with the relationship between body and image, in 2005. They intend to isolate dance from theater, and remove the barrier between audience and performers. They fulfill this idea by using a small gallery spaces to maintain a close distance with the audiences, and, furthermore, to form their creation with the audiences’ existence. By doing this, to bring the new body into their work becomes a challenge, but it also releases the form of dance to a bigger variety group of people.
■ Keisuke Takahashi
A visual artist, Takahashi is a visual director for Nibroll Company, an interdisciplinary arts collective. Nibroll Company has created many video and performance pieces and has participated in arts festivals throughout Japan and the world. Takahashi, as a solo artist, has also created many visual installations and his work has been presented in worldwide. He received the MAM Contemporary Award from Mori Art Museum in 2004 as well as the Committee Recommendation Award from Japan Media Arts Festival in 2006. He also creates many TV and print ads for companies such as Adidas and FIFA, and produces many music videos as well.
■ Mikuni Yanaihara
Since high school, when she began to dance, Yanaihara has won numerous awards for her work, including the NHK Award at a national high school dance competition. After graduating from university with a degree in dance, Yanaihara turned her sights on film and enrolled in film school. Since creating Nibroll in 1997, Yanaihara has brought Nibroll to a range of festivals including the Oregon Dance Festival, the San Francisco Butoh Festival, and the Berlin Fusion Festival, earning great critical acclaim as a choreographer.
■ Tiffany Chung
One of Vietnam’s most prominent contemporary artists, Tiffany Chung is noted for her map drawings, sculptures, photographs, videos, and theatrical performance work that use a pop aesthetic to conjure hyperreal, candy-hued visions which reference both contemporary mass culture and the lingering resonances of historical trauma. Drawn to the process of transformation, Chung’s work examines urban development and questions the roots of society with its cultural memories and values. Exploring the pyschogeographies, her recent work interweaves specific historical events with spatial and sociopolitical changes to examine the complex relationship between site, map and memory. Showing her work in numerous group and solo exhibitions throughout Asia, Europe and the US, Chung’s work was recently featured in the Singapore Biennale 2011. Upcoming in 2012, her work will be presented at the Asia Pacific Triennale 7 (Queensland, Australia); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, USA; and the Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art in Kansas City, USA.
About the performances
■ A performance by Off-Nibroll
Title: A flower
Production Year: 2011
Directed by: Off-Nibroll
Choreographed by: Mikuni Yahaihara
Stage set by: Tiffany Chung
Video visuals by: Keisuke Takahashi
Dancers: Emi Oyama, Akina Kinukawa, Genta Fujikawa, Duong Quoc Khoa
Performance time: Approximately 40 minutes
Off-Nibroll’s artist statement: Faced with the disaster 3.11, a plethora of lives were lost in Japan.
Meanwhile, we are struggling with the serious issues on energy and nuclear power plants. In this circumstance, we discussed with each other, and decided to create a new performance.
The keyword is – a flower.
There might be no direct link between this performance and the disaster we experienced, but we do think we cannot create a performance without thinking about our current situation after the disaster.
We will co-produce this performance with Tiffany Chung, a contemporary artist based in Ho Chi Minh City, and various Vietnamese dancers. After conducting the performances in Bangkok and Ho Chi Minh City, we will perform in Tokyo as well.
We would like to re-think how we should be associated, what we should face with, in the lost ordinary life, through this multi-cultural performance.
■ A performance by Tiffany Chung
Title: Chronicles of a soundless dream
Production Year: 2011
Directed by: Tiffany Chung
Choreographed by: Tiffany Chung, Ngo Thanh Phuong
Lighting by: Tan Loc
Original score by: Dao Duy Tung
Stage set by: Tiffany Chung
Video visuals by: Keijiro Suzuki, Duong Anh Ton
Dancers: Genta Fujikawa, Duong Quoc Khoa, Huynh Tran Khanh Chinh, Nguyen Luong Hoa, Pham Thi Mai Thao
Performance time: Approxiamtely 35 minutes
About Tiffany Chung’s performance work:
Synopsis: After the death of his grandparents, a young man from Tokyo comes across some intriguing tales of his father’s hometown, a tiny hamlet in the Chugoku region of Honshu Island. Through his grandmother’s old letters, the young man becomes increasingly fascinated with her stories and begins to explore his own country’s history. Working as a dancer, he re-imagines life in Japan towards the end of 19th century and early 20th century through powerful choreographed movements and the mesmerizing sounds as described by his grandmother. As the man immerses himself in reinventing these narratives, he is taken on an emotional rollercoaster to revisit Japan’s glorious past and to learn about its decaying present.
Human struggle is always at the core of Tiffany Chung’s video and performance work. Using the body and its choreographed movements, her work reflects human loneliness, struggle and endurance when society drastically transforms itself. In her work, Tiffany Chung fabricates rural and urban environments that are sterile and empty, while still inhabited by human bodies or the absence of them. Intrigued and inspired by the complexity of Japan’s modern history, Chung’s new dance/theater performance attempts to examine the modern society against its historical backdrops and cultural memories, well beyond the context of Japan.
For inquiries on the performances and the interview with off-Nibroll & Tiffany Chung, please contact:
Ms. Nha (098-293-9314)
Mr. Yoshioka (0123-384-4138)
The Japan Foundation Center for Cultural Exchange in Vietnam
27 Quang Trung, Hoan Kiem, Hanoi, Vietnam
TEL 04-3944-7419 www.jpf.org.vn
