CULTURE GATE to JAPAN - +A+

About

Welcome to the terminal that entices you to the spirit of the sea

“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’ measured by a different scale than the hours of human society and imagine new interactions of the spirit with ourselves and others,” explains curator TAKEKAWA Junichi.

+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 take an introspective cultural view and capture this relationship of the human spirit and the sea as a self-centered world, inviting you to a vista that touches the spirit, and marking time that confronts essential questions as rolling waves that surpass the ages. At Tokyo International Cruise Terminal, discover the ‘sea’ within your ‘spirit,’ and together with the view of Tokyo Bay, appreciate the new perspectives of Japan’s sea culture that have been artistically rendered.

Curator: TAKEKAWA Junichi, creative director of electronic music and digital art festival MUTEK.JP

Artworks presented are:

・ sealed aspect by OISHI Hiroaki (visuals) + NAGASHIMA Minori (music)

In the latter half of the Edo period (1603-1868), surveys revealed the outline of the land, and ukiyo-e artists, including KATSUSHIKA Hokusai, began using a method called bird's-eye view of Japan to draw famous places from the sky with their imagination. As a maritime nation, Japan has one of the largest sea areas in the world, but the seawater does not allow for an overview of the entire ocean floor. In this work, the magnificent invisible landscape of Japan under the sea is dynamically expressed with sound and video based on digital data from surveying the topography of the seafloor. Watch the video here.

 ・ Hope by EHARA Saeko

This video artwork is based on Enoshima Engi, the origin myth of Enoshima island off the coast of Japan’s historic capital Kamakura, just one hour from Tokyo. According to the story written by Japanese Buddhist monk Kōkei in 1047 A.D., a five-headed dragon caused around a thousand years of suffering for nearby villagers. Legend has it that Benzaiten, the goddess of music and entertainment, rose the island from bottom of the bay to use as her abode. The dragon fell in love with the beautiful goddess and asked her to be his consort. Benzaiten rejected the dragon’s proposal and made it understand that it had been doing wrong by tormenting the villagers. Ashamed, the dragon promised to cease its bad behavior and turned into a hill, which to this day is known as Dragon’s Mouth Hill. EHARA presents this as an example of Japan’s ancestors turning history of difficult times into a story, and fear and gratitude for nature into faith. She upholds the positive tale, still today strongly associated with Enoshima, to give us hope to live in turbulent times. Watch the video here.

・  The Sigh of Eels by TAKIDO Dorita

Sometimes extinction cannot be prevented, but other times it can. Eels can still be saved, because overfishing is clearly the reason they are endangered. Water quality in seas and rivers, ecosystem diversity, and sustainable food resources are all connected to the plight of the eels. TAKIDO’s artwork shows recent underwater footage of Tokyo Bay and a robot that produces eel larva. Miraculously, the baby eel robots swimming in Tokyo Bay have otoliths, a small bone found in fish and eels’ heads, sometimes called an "ear bone" or "ear stone." Otoliths are used by the fish for orientation and to maintain balance, acting a lot like human’s middle ear. They are used to determine the age of eels. The artist aims to make us consider how technology and human hope can save us.  She chose eels as the focus of the artwork as eating them in summer has been a popular summer tradition from Japan’s Edo period to the present day. Back in samurai days, eels caught in the sea near Edo Castle were called Edo eel’. Watch the video here.