IHJ Art Programs/ Concerts 2015

[IHJ Artists’ Forum-JUSFC 40th Anniversary]
Dance/Film Performance by Julian Barnett
HAFU WAY THERE | HAFU WAY HERE

  • Date: Thursday, December 17, 2015, 7:00 pm
  • Venue: Iwasaki Koyata Memorial Hall, International House of Japan
  • Artists:
    Julian Barnett (Choreographer / US-Japan Creative Artists Program Fellow)
    Jocelyn Tobias (Choreographer / Performer), Tamatsuka Mitsuru (Director / Performer), Yamakawa Hidetake (Musician), Hashimoto Remi (Cinematographer), Masubuchi Takeshi (Mask Design)
  • Language: English (with consecutive interpretation)
  • Co-sponsored by the Japan-US Friendship Commission (JUSFC)
  • Admission: Free (registration required)

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A collection of performances created by choreographer and dancer Julian Barnett, with artists from both New York and Tokyo. Barnett examines his ‘hafu’ (half-American, half-Japanese) identity, fantasizing it as a space between the worlds of New York post-modern dance and the surrealism of Japanese Butoh. Performance works involve the use of voice, film, and music to liberate meaning from language, and offer the body as an instrument of presence.

Profile: Since 2009, Barnett has performed his work throughout North America, Europe, and Asia. His first piece FLOAT, premiered at La Mama Theater in New York and was later acquired by Hubbard Street Dance Chicago and performed internationally. His piece SOUND MEMORY, commissioned by Danspace Project in New York, was selected as “Best of 2009” for Dance by TimeOut New York Magazine, and his solo THE CLEAN STATE, was a finalist in the Sadler’s Wells Global Dance Contest in London. He has been an artist-in-residence at K3 Zentrum für Choreographie in Hamburg, Germany, the Joyce Theater in New York and also received the danceWEB scholarship for Impulstanz in Vienna. He has received commissions and presentations by the The Juilliard School, Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, Dance New Amsterdam, PS 122, Movement Research, AUNTS/American Realness Festival, Bates Dance Festival, as well as internationally by Kampnagel, Hamburg, Uferstudios, Berlin, Dansehallerne, Copenhagen, La Briqueterie-CDC du Val de Marne, Paris, Dance Ireland, Dublin, Dansateliers, Rotterdam, i-dance Festival, Hong Kong and more.

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[IHJ Artists’ Forum-JUSFC 40th Anniversary]
Paul Kikuchi: R E S O N A N C E

    Site-specific video and new ensemble works

  • Date: Wednesday, May 27, 2015, 7:00 pm
  • Venue: Iwasaki Koyata Memorial Hall, International House of Japan
  • Performers: Paul Kikuchi (Composer, Sound Artist, Percussionist; US-Japan Creative Artists Program Fellow), Christopher Yohmei (shakuhachi), Nakamura Hitomi (hichiriki), Tajima Kazue (wagon), Miura Remi (sho)
  • Language: English & Japanese (with consecutive interpretation)
  • Co-sponsored by the Japan-US Friendship Commission (JUSFC)
  • Admission: Free

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This concert features American composer, percussionist, and sound artist Paul Kikuchi, a current fellow of the JUSFC Creative Artists Program.

Kikuchi’s site-specific works utilize the unique reverberation of train tunnels, underground cisterns, and nuclear cooling towers. Using high quality video and audio recording, Kikuchi captures his ephemeral performances, transporting viewers to these often remote and unusual sonic environments. His instrumental compositions are informed by a variety of musical traditions as well as the rhythms, movement, and relationships inherent in natural and urban soundscapes.

The evening will include a series of site-specific videos, followed by the premier of a new composition for an ensemble comprised of Kikuchi and traditional Japanese music performers.

Photo: Tiffany Lin

VIDEO

*No part of the content on this website may be used, edited, or reproduced in any manner without prior permission.

 

[IHJ Artists’ Forum—JUSFC 40th Anniversary]
STAR! STAR! STAR! CIRCLE! (Try! Try! Try! Again!)

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    George Ferrandi’s Immersive Synchronized Sound Play

  • Dates: Mon-Tue, July 6-7, 2015 (New dates)
  • Sessions: 7:00*, 7:20, 7:40, 8:00*, 8:20, 8:40, 9:10 pm (* 7:00 and 8:00 sessions will be in English)
  • Duration: 10 min
  • Location: Rooftop, International House of Japan (4F*)
    Meeting location: Annex Lobby, International House of Japan
    * Please let us know in advance if you require assistance climbing the stairs to the 4th floor.
  • Artist: George Ferrandi (Visual and Performance Artist, US-Japan Creative Artists Program Fellow)
  • Language: English or Japanese
  • Admission: Free
  • Seating: Up to 8 participants for each performance
    * Priority will be given to participants who have made reservations.
  • Recommended age: adults and young adults
  • *In the event of rain, performance will be held indoors.
  • Co-sponsored by the Japan-US Friendship Commission (JUSFC)

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Join us after dark on the rooftop of the I-House, for an experience that is somewhere between a celestial bed-time story and a séance. Through carefully synchronized headsets, 8 participants at a time will become both quiet listeners and stellar performers in a 10-minute narrative experiment centered on dramatic changes in the night sky.

 


[IHJ Artists’ Forum—JUSFC 40th Anniversary]
In Conjunction with Roppongi Art Night 2015
STAR! STAR! STAR! CIRCLE!

*Due to technical issues, this program was postponed to July, 2015. The Performance on this evening was replaced by an Artist Talk.

    George Ferrandi’s Immersive Synchronized Sound Play

  • Date: Saturday, April 25, 2015
  • Sessions: 6:00, 6:20, 6:40, 7:00*, 7:20, 7:50, 8:10, 8:30*, 8:50, 9:10, 9:30 pm (* 7:00 and 8:30 sessions will be in English)
  • Duration: 10 min
  • Location: Rooftop, International House of Japan (4F – no elevator access)
    Meeting location: Annex Lobby, International House of Japan
  • Artist: George Ferrandi (Visual and Performance Artist, US-Japan Creative Artists Program Fellow)
  • Language: English or Japanese
  • Admission: Free
  • Seating: Up to 9 participants for each performance
    * Priority will be given to participants who have made reservations.
  • Recommended age: adults and young adults
  • *In the event of rain, performance will be held indoors.
  • Co-sponsored by the Japan-US Friendship Commission (JUSFC)

Join us after dark on the rooftop of the I-House, for an experience that is somewhere between a celestial bed-time story and a séance. Through carefully synchronized headsets, 9 participants at a time will become both quiet listeners and stellar performers in a 10-minute narrative experiment centered on dramatic changes in the night sky.

 


[IHJ Artists’ Forum—JUSFC 40th Anniversary Year]
In Conjunction with Roppongi Art Night 2015
PRAY WILD (Workshop & Parade)

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    A Spirit Animal Workshop & Parade Featuring Katie Cercone with Go! Push Pops

  • Date: Saturday, April 25, 2015, 1:00 – 4:30 pm
  • Venue: Lecture Hall, International House of Japan
  • Artists: Katie Cercone (Visual Artist, US-Japan Creative Artists Program Fellow) and Go! Push Pops
  • Language: English & Japanese (with interpretation as necessary)
  • Co-sponsored by the Japan-US Friendship Commission (JUSFC)
  • Admission: Free
  • Seating: 20 (reservations required)
  • *All ages welcome. Loose or comfortable clothing recommended.

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A workshop and street parade led by the transnational feminist collective Go! Push Pops. Based loosely on neo-shamanism and a belief in the sacredness of nature, the workshop will help participants learn to identify their spirit animal and strengthen their human connection to the earth through simple physical exercises and meditative crafts. Participants will have the opportunity to make their own costumes in the likeness of their spirit animal. To conclude the session, the group will take to the streets, parading with joy and ease through the wilderness of Roppongi.

 

 

Photos:
a) Go! Push Pops x MARKS DA SPOT collaboration with Xhosa
photographer:Ishmail Thoth Ra
b) Go! Push Pops Sacred Arts Workshop with Alexandra Arts, Manchester, UK

 

[IHJ Artists’ Forum-JUSFC 40th Anniversary Year]
The Sea-Salt Sadness of the Outcast

    • Monique Truong reads from her novel

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  • Date: Friday, March 27, 2015, 7:00 pm
  • Venue: Lecture Hall, International House of Japan
  • Speaker: Monique Truong (Novelist/US-Japan Creative Artists Program Fellow)
  • Commentator: Kobayashi Fukuko (Translator/Guest Professor, Josai International University)
  • Language: English & Japanese (with consecutive interpretation)
  • Co-sponsored by the Japan-US Friendship Commission (JUSFC)
  • Admission: Free (reservations required)

Monique_Truong_SVietnamese American writer Monique Truong, residing in Japan as a US-Japan Creative Artists Program fellow, reads from her novel, The Book of Salt. Set in Paris in the 1920s and 30s, it is a first-person narrative of the Vietnamese chef in the household of Gertrude Stein and Alice B. Toklas. Upon publication in 2003, the book became a national bestseller and the recipient of numerous awards. It has since been translated into thirteen languages, including Japanese (Sairyusha, 2012). Truong will be joined by Kobayashi Fukuko, American Literature professor and the novel’s translator. The reading will be followed by a discussion about the book, as well as Truong’s research plans for her current project.

[Profile]
Monique Truong is a Vietnamese American writer based in Brooklyn, New York. Her first novel, The Book of Salt (Houghton Mifflin, 2003), was a national bestseller, New York Times Notable Fiction book, and recipient of the New York Public Library Young Lions Fiction Award, among other honors. Her second novel, Bitter in the Mouth (Random House, 2010), received the American Academy of Arts and Letters’ Rosenthal Family Foundation Award and named a best fiction book of the year by Barnes & Noble and Hudson Booksellers. She was a 2012 Visiting Writer at the Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, 2010 Guggenheim Fellow, and 2007 Princeton University’s Hodder Fellow. In the Fall of 2016, Truong will be the Sidney Harman Writer-in-Residence at Baruch College in New York City. Truong is a graduate of Yale University and Columbia Law School.

 

Truong is a 2015 fellow of the US-Japan Creative Artists Program through the Japan-US Friendship Commission. Her current project, The Sweetest Fruits (working title), is a novel based on the life of Lafcadio Hearn (Koizumi Yakumo), as told through the voices of the four most important women in his cross-cultural life.

Photo: Michele Panduri Metalli