Giulia Monducci

http://www.giuliamonducci.it/

Giulia Monducci, born in Italy, graduated with a BA in Music from the Media from the “G.B. Martini” Conservatory of Bologna, a BA and MA in Composition from the Royal Conservatory of Brussels. She is a freelance composer and a PhD candidate in Composition at the University of Oxford. In the past few years she’s carried out research on the integration of metaphorical thought and perception in contemporary music, focusing in particular on how the metaphorical conception of ‘space’ relates to matters of sound and temporality. Giulia’s music has been performed internationally at venues such as the ABC Iwaki Auditorium (Melbourne), La Monnaie (Brussels), LaGuardia Performing Arts Center (New York), Lviv Philharmonic, Sheldonian Theatre (Oxford), Schönbrunn Palace (Vienna), among others.

PROJECT OUTLINE – Tokyo Polaroids

During my stay at Co.iki I am going to work on a cycle of ensemble pieces drawing from Japanese aesthetics. This project stems from my doctoral research on the relationship between the concept of ‘space’ and matters of sound and form in contemporary music. Each piece in this cycle will take specific places, concepts (e.g., mujō) or art forms (e.g., Noh Theatre) as sources of inspiration, and will explore the relationship with elements, images, and movement in connection to music. This project was born from a long time interest for Japanese culture and conceived with the intent of expanding my artistic practice while deepening the study of Japanese culture, music and traditions.

 A sketch of the ensemble work

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 Score

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mariano Leotta

 Mariano Leotta,born in 1982 in Sicily, he has been based since then in Milan, Berlin, Dubai, and Montreal.His creations have been seen all around the world, and invited to prestigious art events, such as Moscow Biennale, Mediterranea and International Symposium of Electronic Arts (ISEA). During his career he had the privilege to collaborate with international clients, such as BMW, Mercedes, Royal Caribbean, and high profile artists, such as Red Hot Chili Peppers, Namie Amuro, Childish Gambino, among others.

His creative path has always been moved by passion and curiosity: formed in experimental theater and cinema, it evolved significantly with the work on multimedia art and interactive dance. Recently he has been focusing on the artistic direction of music shows, and he is always keen to get back to his first love and that creative freedom given by multimedia art.

Website

http://www.marianoleotta.com/

Project Plan

“UN/BALANCE”

Starting from a loose reflection on human relationships, I have been posing myself some high level questions. How people are relating to each other in claustrophobic situations? A cell, an oppressive household or a simple state of mind.

I noticed a series of extreme relational patterns and behaviours dictated by social conditioning and I started taking some visual notes, sketches on my notebook. It felt just natural to imagine how those relations, that social pressure could be visualized with light: walls that grow in between people, rooms that force them together.

A performative element has been missing to the project. When I bumped into a video of a Butoh dancer. A silent scream. I was mesmerized: his physical expressivity, his grotesque pose, his look. I wanted to know more. I wanted it in the project.

During the residency my plan is to combine a physical and a multimedia research, butoh and volumetric lights, to create an immersive environment. A space where invisible dividers forces human behaviours, where relationships can become absurd.

Community Workshop by Mariano

January 20th, sunday , in Sengawa

https://www.facebook.com/events/535688390282695/

*Please check the details of the WS on our Facebook page.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Elektro kokon

 

 

 

 

 

 

1|10|100000

 

 

Collaborators

 

Dai Matsuoka

http://daimatsuoka.com/

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Dai Matsuoka is a Butoh Dancer and the Artistic Director of LAND FES based in Tokyo. He has been a dancer with Butoh company SANKAIJUKU since 2005 and has danced in eight SANKAIJUKU pieces including “Kinkan Shonen”, “Tobari”, “Meguri” and “Unetsu” in over 20 countries.
http://www.sankaijuku.com/

Matsuoka has also been directing the performance event “LAND FES” in Tokyo since 2011, where the audience is navigated to encounter live sessions by musicians and dancers taking place at different places in the town.
http://land-jp.com/

Matsuoka is also in collaboration with puppet company Phantom Limb (NY) for its latest piece “FALLING OUT” as a choreographer and performer. Its premiere will take place at Brooklyn Academy of Music in NY in November 2018.
http://phantomlimbcompany.com/productions#/fallingout/

As a member of NPO Dance Archive Network (TOKYO), Matsuoka is also involved in research, development and utilization of Butoh legend Yoshito Ohno’s 3D motion data for archival purpose of Butoh.
http://www.dance-archive.net/en/index.html

Matsuoka was in charge of movement direction of over 1600 senior citizens at the massive play “GOLD SYMPHONY my dream, your dream” presented by Saitama Arts Foundation at Saitama Super Arena in 2016.

 

Kei Ishikawa

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Born in Aichi prefecture in 1986.Kei started classical ballet when she was 4-year-old and graduated from ballet course of Showa University of Music.

In 2007, she encountered Daisuke Yoshimoto’s butoh and took part in his performance piece “Tears of Eros”. In 2008,Ishikawa joined Yoshimoto’s tour to Poland and then after showed her own solo piece “Departure of Prodigal Daughter”. In 2009, she took part in the tour of Yoshimoto to NYC,Mexico and Poland. After 2010 till now,Ishikawa has joined several performances by Yoshimoto touring mainly to Poland and showing her solo pieces all around the world.

 

Masahiro Nakanishi  

http://masahirock.wix.com/tokyodiamonddance

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nakanishi is a founder of “Tokyo Diamond”, an improvisational performance unit based in Tokyo. After his career as an actor for TV commercial film, theater and radio, he stepped into the Butoh world and he is the last pupil of Mitsutaka Ishii, one of the founders of Ankoku Butoh.

Nakanishi creates and improvises performances in different places like shopping street, temples, park, woods and so on. Alongside his own creation, Nakanishi is actively working as a director/coordinator of art festivals, administrative workshops and stage-managing.

 

 

Bruno Z’Graggen, born in Zurich, Switzerland where he lives.He studied Social History and Art History at the University of Zurich and did a PhD in Social History.In 2000, he continued his education with a CAS in Cultural Management at the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts.2001, he started his activities as a freelance curator in arts. His first exhibition called «Iluminando Vidas» was a collaboration with 15 Photographers from Mozambique and opened 2002. After more shows in the field of photography, he continued as curator with projects in Contemporary Art and all medias. Since 2012, he runs the Video Art platform VIDEO WINDOW based in Zurich and realised several projects. Beside the curatorial work he is responsable for promotion of research at the University of Lucerne where he holds a part time job (50%).

–>His Website

Project Plan

During his five weeks stay in Tokyo, he will explore the art scene especially the video art scene. He is interviewing the director of the Video Art Center Tokyo, Kentaro Taki. One important objective are studio visits and interviews with Japanese video artists.
He intends to discuss with them their works, approaches, contents and forms and their position and situation as artists in Japan. At the same time, he will try to organise at the Keio University of Tokyo a screening event of a program called «Between Reality and Illusion» which contain works from seven Swiss video artists.

• Screening: «Between Reality and Illusion»
  Ort: Keio University, Faculty of Letters, Department of Sociology, Raum 473 2-15-45 Mita, Minato-ku; J-108-8345 Tokyo
  Partner: Prof. Takemitsu Morikawa, Professor for Sociology with focus on sociological theory, history of sociology, sociology of culture and sociology of knowledge
  Termin: Mittwoch, 11. Juli 2018, 16.30–19.30h
  Kuratorium: Bruno Z’Graggen
  VIDEO WINDOW IN TOKYO

As he has not been staying in Japan yet, he is interested in general on the Japanese society and culture in a large sense from daily life and traditions, costumes, kitchen and eating up to classical fields of culture. Further more, he is interested on mega-cities and intends to discover Tokyo, its organisation and space for work and life of the people.

 

 

coiki

 

Gerda Sokelyte, born in 1985 in Lithuania, graduated with BA in History (Lithuania), MA in Political Science (Lithuania) and MA in Anthropology (Denmark).
As an anthropologist she did a research about the auto-poetic Street Art social movements in Uganda (Kampala). Currently she is interested in Ankoku Butoh theater-dance and philosophy.
The clash between language and body, which forms the backbone of Ankoku Butoh, encourages her to dance this (re)search.

Project Plan

I believe in learning-by-doing process, it allows me to reach an open-minded approach and understanding of limits, space and personality. My intension is to learn about Ankoku Butoh from local creators: Natsu Nakajima, Yoshito Ohno, etc. I will try to look at it through the ”inside” perspective, in other words, (re)search Ankoku Butoh through dancing.

As Natsu Nakajima said, ”(…) the idee of Ankoku Butoh is based on such body ideologies as ”the extra-daily body” or ”strip off the individual or social identity” and return to the body as a natural entity”. This concept turned into the spine for the ”9 mono” (re)search. ”9 mono” – 9 bodies danced in 9 different spaces of Tokyo city. It will be implemented together with co* iki and local community.

Stills from short film “Pleasure” by Gintare Sokelyte:

“Pleasure”, 2018, Frankfurt

“Pleasure”, 2018, Frankfurt

“Pleasure”, 2018, Frankfurt

Paul Beumer (1982)

recieved his BFA from the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague, the Netherlands and completed a two year residency at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam. Recent solo exhibitions include Paint wide Mouth white at Qingyuan art centre in Beijing, In the shade of the elms and willows, my friend drink until they are inspired at Goethe pavillion, Palais Schardt, Weimar and I wont have the luxury in seeing scenes like this much longer at DurstBritt&Mayhew in The Hague.

WebSite

www.paul-beumer.tumblr.com

Project Plan

My painterly practice oscillates freely between figuration and abstraction with a specific focus on the relationship between Western and Asian approaches to landscape painting. I likes to think of painting in terms of reflection and slow evolution, not in stylistic shenanigans. Painting for me, should not arise as the consequence of any strict formal concept, but should weave a tissue of memories, experiences and ideas.

In the West we generally expect philosophy to come from books. In the East there is an awareness that philosophy may also comes from other things, like a rock or (visual) arts and crafts.

During my stay at Co-Iki I’m undertaking a personal search for Wabi-Sabi, the Japanese form of aesthetics that in its fullest expression can be a philosophy and a way of life. Wabi-Sabi objects are earthy, simple, unpretentious and fashioned out of natural materials.
What interest me most is that the beauty of Wabi-Sabi is a perceptual event. It happens when conditioned and habituated ways of looking at things fall away, when things are defamiliarised. Wabi-Sabi involves perceiving something extraordinary in something otherwise regarded ordinary.
I hope to clarify the transition of an object into a piece of Wabi-Sabi and how this information can relate to my own painterly practice.

 

2017, Chinese ink on cotton.

2016, Various inks on cotton.

2014, work in process, Rijksakademie, Amsterdam.

2014, Colour ink on paper.

 

Project Repot

Please view the report on Barter Project by YiPei.

 

Resident’s feedback on Co-iki Residency Program

1. The environment of the residence/room, working & living environment, location, etc.

The room is great for living and working. It has very nice view and sufficient sunlight during the day which is good for art-making. The fact that it can be interchangeable as a bedroom or studio or display room makes it a meaningful and useful space. The house is lovely and a very nice place to stay. The residency, where is located 15-minute walk away from Sengawa station, is close to shops and restaurants. Overall, the location is very good.

2. Co-iki members, atmosphere & characters, etc.

Co-iki members are very friendly and nice to communicate with. They are very open to share ideas and give suggestions when necessary. They also give useful advices or information regarding my stay in Tokyo and Japanese culture. Spending time with the members and staying in the Co-iki with Yoko are very good ways to learn about Japan as well as Japanese custom and culture. They have very kind personalities which are very easy to get along with. I felt very comfortable having them to experience life together in a totally strange place to me and working together on the project. Thanks to their kindness and generosity in making the Co-iki a very warm place to stay, I never really felt far away from home.

3. Sengawa, the town.

Sengawa is a serene and peaceful place. Although it is far away from the hustle bustle of the city hub, it is an interesting place itself. There are several supermarkets that provide daily needs as well as restaurants that serve delicacies. While there are fast food, there are handmade and organic food too. From “residential” cafés, ramen shops, theatre, galleries to “olsén”, schools, bookstores, second-hand good shops and so on, Sengawa is a relatively small town as compared to the busy areas in city hub, however, it consists of plenty of interesting things. In the neighbourhood, it is not uncommon to see small farms. It is a “green” place with fresh air as well as peaceful atmosphere.

4. Your challenge in Tokyo and your effort/experience/discovery/change in realizing the project.

Staying in Tokyo without knowing Japanese was a challenge to me. Travelling in the city, finding ways, buying things, making inquiry and so on could be a problem sometimes. While language could be a barrier, it was not really a big issue as people were always willing to help. In terms of the project, how to communicate with people at a deeper level without knowing the language could be a concern. Fortunately, the language issue primarily had been overcome with the assistance by Yoko. Therefore, from a different perspective, how to involve people taking part in the project was the main question. Since artworks are objects I offered for exchange, artworks per se played very crucial role in the project. Hence art-making was the part, or I should say the challenge, I have to overcome in order to get the project running. Basically, it involved the quality and quantity I could produce in such a short amount of time. While it proceeded to the second part which was the interaction with people, I found out while the language might have become a limitation in some occasions, the whole effort of spending time together, be it having tea or cooking together, was much more important. I guess for the participants and I, while item exchanging was a key part of the Barter Project, the experience we had been through would be more significant after all.

5. Your future plan and the development of your project you wish from this residency experience. What this 2 month residency means to you in your life.

To me, it will be interesting to run the Barter Project in a different place in the future. What if the project is carried out in a public place? Would there be any difference in planning and running the project if I were in a different community? As for the near future plan, currently, I am preparing for an exhibition which is taking place in Auckland very soon. I think it is too soon for me to conclude what the residency really means to me “in my life”. However, I think staying at the Co-iki really had been a wonderful self-exploring journey to me. Within the two months, constantly involving myself in art-making, interacting with local people and exploring unknown places turned out to be a process of self-discovery. Through the process of understanding a different culture and running the project, it had become common to question about my own identity, career and expectation.

6. Japanese culture, people, city, etc. (any impression)

Talking about my impression of Japanese culture, people and city, I think there is a few words that appear immediately in my mind. Such reaction really tells how the way the culture, people and city impressed me. “Order”, “organised”, “detailed”, “delicate”, “sophisticate” and “creative”, to mention a few. From what I had seen, people are following certain “social orders” or tradition that in result form a much organised society. I can easily tell from how people being organised in large crowd or how people being considerate for the others when doing little things in daily life. People’s attitude in strictly paying attention to details lead to a much delicate and sophisticate culture. It can be shown through how the traditional food is prepared and served as well as through the woodblock print and painting in Japanese art. Japanese creativity, from the field of visual art and animation to architecture and food, has been surprising me a lot during the stay and even before I went to Japan. I have to say that I am always amazed by how effective and wise the way Japanese use space. It is always amazing and entertaining to view how the interior of a house is designed or the limited courtyard space is used.

7. Support of the resident’s project

I cannot express more how grateful I am towards the support given by the Co-iki members. From assisting in more technical aspect such as translation to introducing me to Japanese culture, from making the interview video to exploring the city, from helping to set up the sharing event to sharing Japanese traditional food, from giving me tips of living with respect in Japanese society to accompanying me to art museum and event, and much more. I appreciate a lot for such kind and warm support. These priceless experiences are wonderful and warm memories.

By Yi Pei

2016/11/22-2017/1/24

Loh Yi Pei, born in 1989 in Malaysia, graduated from the Academy of Arts & Design, Beijing Tsinghua University (Bachelor of Fine Arts, Department of Painting) and is currently studying Master of Art Curatorship in the University of Melbourne. Focus on work on paper, Yi Pei is interested in presenting the intervention of the artist’s imagination into everyday life experience and living environment. His works depict imaginary cityscape as well as distorted nature environment and show the interplay between real and fictional world. Yi Pei’s works have stories to tell but at the same time aim to inspire audience to generate their own.

Web-Site

https://lohyipei.com/

Project Plan

During the residency in Co·iki, I am going to run an art project calledThe Barter Project which aims to interact with the local community by exchanging any item of the participant’s choice with my works of art, including drawing and painting, made in Tokyo. The reciprocal gesture is expected to complete alongside with a dialogue between the participant and I. The participant is invited to share about the story behind his or her selected item, however, of course, any conversation is more than welcomed!

Sample works

Loh Yi Pei, The Moving Islands, ink on paper, 64x117cm, 2016 (above)

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Loh Yi Pei, The Citi Series IV, ink on paper, 72x68cm, 2012 (above)

 

Loh Yi Pei, The Hunchbacked Mushroom, watercolour on paper, 25.5x20cm, 2016 (left)
Loh Yi Pei, We Stay Close Together, watercolour on paper, 25.5x20cm, 2016 (right)

Loh Yi Pei, The Octopus with Feathers, watercolour on paper, 25.5x20cm, 2016(above)