◆ Yashima Air short version (approximately 2 minutes)
◆ Yashima Air (long version, approximately 16 minutes)
Planning and production: Setouchi Circus Factory
Video: Shintaro Miyawaki
Sound installation: Toshiyuki Shibata
◆ “Yashima Air,” produced on commission from Takamatsu City’s Art City Takamatsu Cultural and Artistic Creation Project, has been released! Shintaro Miyawaki, Toshiyuki Shibata, a specialist in early music, and, if I may say so, Tanaka of Setouchi Circus Factory share a strong resonance in rediscovering the appeal of local communities while traveling across international stages, and in making Kagawa an important base. We are truly delighted that these three came together last year.
◆ This video was produced last year as a kind of side story surrounding the Eco-Labo Theater (an environment-coexisting stage performance) held at the summit of Mount Yashima. The stage performance of Eco-Labo Theater was created from the imagination of performing in Yashima, a national park and another world located immediately beside the urban area. Right next to human life, there is a far more vivid “wild” world than we usually realize. What does it mean to create a stage performance that coexists with that wildness? Loud sounds and intense lights are not appropriate. We must not startle the animals, and using large amounts of electricity on the mountaintop would be unnatural. We established the almost outrageous rule that the performance itself had to be carried out using “no more than 2,000 watts” of power, turning it into a game in which everyone took part: “How much light and sound can be expressed with so little electricity?”
◆ Video story: While preparations for a circus performance were under way at the summit of Mount Yashima, thunder suddenly rang out, and the protagonist was transported to another world. Having lost their memory, they walk anxiously alone into the depths of the forest, where they encounter circus fairies one after another. Through the joy of performances their body remembers even though their memories are gone, they gradually regain their sense of self.
During filming and rehearsals, thunder actually resounded, and all the stage equipment was dismantled in the pouring rain. We would be delighted if you could sense even that “scent.” We will continue developing the concept of “Eco-Labo Theater” from this year onward!
