[The Hottamaru Days Download
Addison Mauldin
In a traditional Japanese house, caressed by a summer breeze, a musician (real life popular musician Satoko Shibata) spends her solitary days composing music, exercising, and dozing off. Little she knows that four invisible fairies follow her everywhere, feeding on her body odor, and collecting her shed hair and dry skin particles. They roam the house searching for body detritus and cling on her while she is asleep to inhale her scent and pass it on to each other like a bubble of smoke. Like spirits of the house, they are joyous and curious, and they dance around in underwear and bare feet, like happy children.
One day, they encounter another bizarre entity in the house, a beautiful young woman (Lisa Oda) who lives underwater, in the bathtub. Soon they befriend her, but the water girl is different from them; she seems to be a newcomer fairy, discovering and exploring her supernatural status day by day. She is a little bit naughty and selfish, all she wants to do is to dance and celebrate the world outside the bathtub.
The story of a woman trying to speak in the face of a "black object" with much greater power than her own. The woman cannot express her feelings, but instead exhales beautiful flowers from her mouth. The film is influenced by the current global trend of individual accusations of wrongdoing, as in the #MeToo movement, driving public opinion. While the artist focused on sonic and tactile textures, the film remains controversial, with approximately 50 seconds of footage blacked out when it was shown due to museum concerns over the shocking nature of some scenes.
Yoshigai Nao is a filmmaker, dancer, and choreographer. After graduating from Japan Women's College of Physical Education (major in Dance Studies), she completed the Graduate School of Film and New Media at Tokyo University of the Arts. She creates time and space to focus on "watching and listening" based on the physical senses and phenomena unique to living things. The film hottamarudays won the New Face Award in the Entertainment category at the 19th Japan Media Arts Festival Entertainment Division, and she has been acclaimed for her music video productions. Yoshigai was in charge of choreography and has also performed in the music video for Yonezu Kenshi's "Lemon."
TOKYO, Jan. 25, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- The Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan, launched an innovative cultural promotion project called "CULTURE GATE to JAPAN" at Haneda airport and the Tokyo International Cruise Terminal for its second year on January 19th 2022. This project, allows artists and creators active in the field of Media Arts to create works based on various aspects of Japanese culture and exhibit them at airports and cruise terminals to convey the appeal of Japanese culture.
Two installations will be on display at Haneda Airport. The first, "NEO-KAKEJIKU", infuses traditional hanging scrolls with technology and in a modern interpretation, and the second installation is based on the theme of 'fireworks'.
The Tokyo International Cruise Terminal will host "+A+" (pronounced "Plus A-Plus"), an exhibition of video works on the theme of the sea and the human heart, curated by TAKEKAWA Junichi (a representative of David Watts inc.), known for his work as the Creative Director of MUTEK.JP.
The incorporation and blending of inherited traditional culture and cutting-edge technology can be highlighted as an allure of Japanese culture. We will exhibit Welcome Art installations at the airport, inviting visitors to experience and appreciate the confluence of traditional Japanese art with a wide range of contemporary Media Arts, including modern forms of entertainment such as manga and animation, as well as other art forms utilizing technology.
Hanging scrolls mount paintings and calligraphy on places such as alcoves and walls as decoration or to be appreciated. In this exhibit, we have added technology and modern interpretations to that traditional media to establish new manifestations. A monitor has been placed in the center area called the 'honshi,' which is usually adorned by a picture or calligraphy to play videos created by five artists who work in the realm of contemporary Media Arts.
"Hanabi/Fireworks", enchanting spectacles shared by many around the world, has taken slightly unique development path in Japan. Since 17th century, it has been evolving together with the local cultures in various regions throughout this nation and come to hold the cultural significance of the country. Artist, SHIMADA Sayaka, using this global yet local symbol "fireworks", as the means of expression, explores the complex culture of Japan filled with the coexistence of concepts even in histories, philosophies, and aesthetics.
Historically, the fireworks displays are known to have contradicting meanings of "festival" and "memorial service/reposing the souls" and have thrived with both aspects. For this work, SHIMADA focuses on this dualism of the fireworks festival. She collects and analyzes the temporal and geographical data of all the fireworks cancelled in Japan through 2020 because of COVID-19 and creates the actual fireworks that evoke another world that could have been and to honor the lost festivals. The form of the exhibition changes in stages, starting from a video work of the production process and data simulations, and to the installation consisting of used tubes from the actual fireworks launch and filmed footage.
Not only as an artist but also as an award-winning fireworks designer, SHIMADA, envisions to create the world that contrasts the various aspects of fireworks by examining the historical and cultural backgrounds.
*Please note that there is a possibility of the exhibition being relocated or suspended due to circumstances of the venue or the situation relating to the COVID-19 pandemic. Please visit the official website for the latest information.
*Tokyo International Cruise Terminal is currently closed in accordance with the policies of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government. The exhibition is slated to open at the same time the terminal is re-opened to the public. Please visit the official website for the latest schedule and other information.
While looking out on the sea from Tokyo International Cruise Terminal, in the drifting of the waves that move closer and farther away without ever ceasing, as creators we feel 'time' that is measured by a different scale than the hours of human society and imagine new interactions of the spirit within ourselves and others.
+A+ (Plus A Plus) is an exhibit that uses sound and images to appreciate the 'world' of +A+, an imaginary code that connects to the port. 'A' represents the process of cultural and artistic activities in which 'A'rtists express and 'A'rchive the interaction between the existence of the port that encompasses encounters and traditions, and the sea that 'A'dapts to the contexts of Japanese culture.
The three artists whose works are exhibited here take an introspective cultural view and capture this relationship of the human spirit and the sea as a self-centered world. The work invites you to a vista that touches the spirit, and marks a time that confronts essential questions as rolling waves that surpass the ages. At the Tokyo International Cruise Terminal, discover the 'sea' within your 'spirit,' and together with the view of Tokyo Bay, appreciate these new perspectives of Japan's sea culture through artistic renderedings.
Creative Label nor is an art collective launched in 2017 by members from various backgrounds and includes scientists, musicians, architects, programmers, engineers, and designers. By utilizing technology to express natural phenomena as artworks, the group aims to embody the 'sublation of science and art.' The artwork, "dyebirth" (2017) that drips ink according to an algorithm was chosen in the Jury Selections for the Art Division at the 22nd Japan Media Arts Festival.
EHARA Saeko was born in Tokyo in 1985. She is an artist and a video jockey. After graduating from the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague (KABK) in the Netherlands, for over ten years she has been involved in the entertainment world, working in various stages, primarily in concerts, in roles such as video production and operation as a video jockey. She began her activities in earnest in Japan and abroad in 2020. Under the theme, 'the unspoiled landscape in my memories,' she creates artworks in the field of digital art. Her latest major activities include "MUTEK.JP" (2021) and "XRE's Ars Electronica Festival Garden NYC Portal" (2021).
MIYAZAKI Natsujikei was born in Miyagi Prefecture in 1987 and is a manga artist. She got her start in 2010 with her first serial publication, "Yugata madeni Kaeru yo" (I'll Be Home by Evening; Kodansha, Ltd.) in "Gekkan Morning Two" No. 40. "The News of Transformation" (Kodansha, Ltd., 2013) was chosen in the Jury Selections for the Manga Division at the 17th Japan Media Arts Festival. She depicts the swirl of intense emotions in everyday life through carefree designs.
Nyamyam (UK) is an independent development studio comprised of three skilled game creators from Japan, the UK, and Germany who have a keen love of Japanese culture. "Tengami" (2014) is a puzzle adventure game that incorporates the texture of Japanese 'washi' paper, one of the traditional beauties of Japan, and the structure of pop-up books into its visuals. It won awards at SXSW 2014, IndieCade, SOWN, Develop Showcase, and Game Connection BIG Festival, and was chosen in the Jury Selections for the Entertainment Division at the 18th Japan Media Arts Festival.
OISHI Hiroaki was born in Fukuoka Prefecture in 1984. He graduated from Kyushu University Graduate School of Design. He produces video media art that strives for interactive, organic, and emotional expression with the body and environment through computer graphics and algorithms, and carries out educational and research activities. Recent major projects include the teamLab video production of "Universe of Water Particles" (2013) and a music video production of Minori Nagashima's "Queen of xxx" (2019). He is a senior lecturer at Design Informatics, Musashino Art University.
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