- Thursday, August 14, 2025 6:00~9:10 pm (Doors open at 5:30 pm)
- Venue: Kabayama-Matsumoto Room, East Wing basement, International House of Japan
- Speakers: Session 1: Katelyn Rebelo (via Zoom) & Kira Matsubara-Dane / Session 2: Dan Spiegel, Megumi Aihara, Tamotsu Teshima, Shotaro Oshima
- Language: Japanese & English (with interpretation)
- Co-sponsored by the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission
- Admission: PEATIX / Web Form
This summer’s IHJ Artist Forum will feature a special event, inviting two U.S-Japan artist teams selected for this year’s U.S.-Japan Creative Artists Fellowship Program to introduce and discuss their projects.
In the first session (6:00 pm~), filmmakers Katelyn Rebelo and Kira Matsubara-Dane will discuss their experiential animation installation, 72 Micro Seasons, which reflects time through the Japanese micro-seasons following the lunisolar calendar.
In the second session (7:30 pm~), architects Dan Spiegel, Megumi Aihara, Tamotsu Teshima, and Shotaro Oshima will discuss their collaborative project Looking After the Fires, cultural responses to fire and wildfires in American and Japanese cultures. The work is currently exhibited at the U.S. Pavilion at the Osaka-Kansai Expo.
A short reception will be held after the event.
6:00 pm~
Session 1 [ANIMATION]：
72 Micro Seasons ~Animation Documentary
A presentation and screening from U.S. Japan Creative Artist fellows Katelyn Rebelo and Kira Dane, who are creating an animated documentary that reflects time through the Japanese micro-seasons following the lunisolar calendar, shichijūni kō. Using handmade phenakistoscopes, the film observes these seasons as a backdrop to the lives of a multigenerational family living in Chimata, Yoshino-cho, Nara Prefecture, depicting the delicate changes felt in daily life across a single year. In this talk, the filmmakers will discuss some of the inspirations behind this project, showing previews of project along with some clips of their past work.
ARTISTS
Katelyn Rebelo is a documentary and experimental filmmaker whose work uses intentionally slow processes such as handcrafted animation, analogue manipulation, and rhythms found in nature to explore personal stories that question systems of power. Along with Kira Dane, they have created the films Mizuko (2020) and Through Sunless Ways (2023) through their joint production company One Eyed Productions.
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Kira Dane is a Japanese and American filmmaker from New York City, currently based in Nara, Japan. Shaped by a multicultural upbringing between Eastern and Western ideologies, her work often expresses a search for balance within gray areas. She frequently works with hand-crafted animation and experimental storytelling structures to explore these themes.
7:30 pm~
Session 2 [ARCHITECTURE]:
Looking, after the Fires
Four architects from the U.S. and Japan will discuss the project Looking, after the Fires, currently exhibited at the U.S. Pavilion at the Osaka-Kansai Expo. Their work explores representations of “landscapes after fire” across different cultures through film, literature, and artifacts from the built environment in both countries. As part of this project, the team has designed a new fire tower that transcends cultural differences, serving as a vantage point for observing the larger process of ecosystem regeneration.
⇒Project Website
ARTISTS
Spiegel Aihara Workshop is a transdisciplinary design firm, operating at the nexus of architecture, landscape, and urban design. Megumi and Dan believe in the transformative power of good design, in the inextricable relationship between building and context, and in the vital role the built environment plays in the development of community. They view design as a collaborative, research-based process, and work closely with clients to better understand their needs and advance their goals. Current recipients of the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome.
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Tamotsu Teshima is an acclaimed architect and educator based in Tokyo, Japan, where his office Tamotsu Teshima Architect & Associates produces rational, beautiful architecture that is sensitive to the landscape and responsive to historical context. He is a lecturer in architecture at the Tokyo University of Science.
Born in 1990 in Tokyo.
After studying architecture at the Glasgow School of Art, Shotaro joined Jamie Fobert Architects, London in 2016.
He has worked on historic design projects in London, Paris and Dublin.
Since 2021 Shotaro has established his own studio, Shotaro Oshima Design Studio.
He is a part-time lecturer at Tama Art University.