PARASOPHIA 京都国際現代芸術祭2015

Miwa Yanagi (やなぎみわ)
b. 1967 in Kobe, Japan; based in Kyoto
www.yanagimiwa.net

Work in exhibition
Stage trailer for the play Nichirin no tsubasa [The Wing of the Sun], 2014
Mobile stage trailer made in Taiwan

See all installation views at higher resolution: www.flickr.com/photos/parasophia/sets/72157656878416605

Miwa Yanagi came into the limelight around the middle of the 1990s with works about women living in contemporary Japanese society, such as her series of photographs of “elevator girls,” or young women in uniform who operate elevators in Japanese department stores. One of her earliest works was a performance featuring elevator girls, and the theatrical aspect of her photographs and video pieces always remained a key element of her works. In recent years, Yanagi’s attention has been focused on theater, starting with her 1924 trilogy (2011–12) of plays about the Tsukiji Shōgekijō, or Japan’s first modern theater. Her play about an anonymous voice as a medium, Zero Hour: Tokyo Rose’s Last Tape (Kanagawa Arts Theatre, Aichi Arts Center [Aichi Triennale 2013]), was performed in the United States in January and February 2015.
At the 2014 Yokohama Triennale, she presented a mobile stage trailer for her play Nichirin no tsubasa (Wings of the Sun), which is based on the novel of the same name by Kenji Nakagami. For Parasophia: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture 2015, she presents the process of turning the novel into a play as the “Stage Trailer Project.” The mobile stage for the project was made in Taiwan, where such vehicles rented for street karaoke events, political campaign speeches, and so forth are an integral part of popular culture. A variety of performances will be staged on the trailer, including a dance performance, a costume show, and a reading by Seiko Ito.

• Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art