Theatre and art on the digital stage: UENOYES 2020 “HOME & AWAY” ＜Toshiki Okada×Rintaro Fuse＞
UENOYES was launched in the autumn of 2018 as a community-based art project that hosts arts and cultural events in the vicinity of Ueno Park, under the banner of social inclusiveness. Amid the novel coronavirus pandemic, UENOYES made the leap to the digital world in November 2020, inviting a diverse roster of guests to participate in a six-day series of talk events streamed online, hosted by UENOYES General Producer and artist Katsuhiko Hibino. Titled “UENOYES 2020 HOME & AWAY,” the program explored the new normal under a global lockdown, tapping the internet to bridge social distance and continue to connect participants quartered in their homes, both in Japan and abroad.
In this installment, we highlight one of the discussion panels to illustrate how UENOYES continued the dialogue on the future of art and culture during a most uncertain year.
◆Participants: Toshiki Okada (Playwright, novelist, and director of the Chelfitsch Theatre Company), Rintaro Fuse (artist), Katsuhiko Hibino (UENOYES General Producer, artist)
No time like the present
The
fifth day of events commenced with a comment on the importance of inclusivity
and listening to diverse voices. Hibino highlighted how the wide field of
participants in UENOYES discussions had fostered new synergies to be explored
in the future.
“After
speaking with many guests, we’ve begun to see that there is not one right
answer. There are many perspectives on the role art can play in creating a more
diverse society, as well as the nature of expression amid the coronavirus
pandemic.”
The
day’s lineup was no exception. The first panel brought together playwright
Toshiki Okada and artist Rintaro Fuse, two creators from different artistic
backgrounds who had both found success on the digital stage. As the pandemic
cancelled live performances and exhibitions, Okada and Fuse began uploading new
work online, inviting internet audiences to tumble down remote wormholes to
their own private worlds under lockdown.
From left: Katsuhiko Hibino, Toshiki Okada, and Rintaro Fuse
The
bulk of the discussion centered on a recent project by Okada. Calling from
Berlin, Okada recounted how the pandemic threw a wrench into his plans to stage
a new play, “Miren no Yurei to Kaibutsu” (“Unfulfilled Ghost and Monster”)
at the Kanagawa Arts Theatre (KAAT) in June 2020. Although the play could not
be performed in front of a live audience due to concerns over COVID, Okada
decided to stream socially distanced performances of the play online, as the “Unfulfilled
Ghost of the Performance of ‘Unfulfilled Ghost and Monster.’”
For a limited two-day run, the play was enacted on an array of screens set up on a table which served as an impromptu stage. Each screen showed an actor, patched in remotely, allowing audiences to vicariously experience the fictional world of Okada’s narrative in real time.
The
format suited Okada’s style as a uniquely experimental playwright. The
barebones staging could even be seen as an extension of his past plays, which
have in their own way deconstructed the genre, stripping the theatre down to
its essence.
Fuse
homed in on this point with a line of questioning that further elucidated
Okada’s thoughts on the importance of time and place vis-a-vis the theatre with
new clarity.
Mirai Moriyama — actor, dancer, and cast member in “Unfulfilled Ghost and Monster” — made a cameo appearance in the talk event, emphasizing how “sharing an experience of the same time and space” is an indispensable element of the theatre.
Who makes art?
No
stranger to the internet, Fuse has garnered acclaim for his digital artwork
predating the pandemic. His latest online exhibition, Kakurishiki noko
sesshoku shitsu (Isolated close contact room), has been of particular note
for its unique system that only allows one virtual viewer to access the site at
a time.
Combining
poetry by Nao Mizusawa with digitally manipulated imagery from Google Street
View, which was created based on the user’s current location, the work explores
possibilities for generating personalized engagement with art in a mass digital
realm.
Fuse explained his motivation behind the project: “I wanted to offer a format between isolation and interconnection, in the hopes of giving new meaning to the value of art exhibitions in the middle of megacities.”
The landing page for Rintaro Fuse’s online exhibition displays a message that instructs users to wait their turn, as only one person can access the exhibition at a time.
During
the talk event, Fuse described how his work philosophically grapples with a
paradigm shift he describes as the “new isolation” and presented his belief
that art does not exist in a vacuum, but is something made together between
artists and viewers. In particular, Okada nodded along to Fuse’s observation
that “it’s important that viewers are inspired to feel this 1-on-1 relationship
with the artwork.”
Now
that the novel coronavirus pandemic has provided an unexpected push in the arts’
drift toward the digital stage, the talk event provided an extremely timely
platform for pioneers in the field to take stock of their bearings as they navigate
the potholes and potential of the new online frontier.
＊
Text: Mayumi Yawataya Photos: Fumitaka Miyoshi (top image and images marked with an asterisk)
