Kaguya Hime — かぐや姫
This project was created for the contemporary art festival Project Atami, with the support of Atami Art Grant.
Based on the tale of the bamboo cutter, considered one of the oldest Japanese prose stories, this video and performance project was born from the close collaboration between a composer, a Butoh dancer, and myself.
The project aims to reinterpret the life of Princess Kaguya, who is born in a bamboo and, after many enchantments and disappointments on earth, returns to the moon, her home planet. Interpreted by the Butoh dancer, Kaguya Hime wears a costume whose material and shape evoke the duality of her feelings, between earth and moon, conven- tion and freedom, consumption and nature. The silk fabric, from an upcycled kimono roll, embraces her chest in a complex tangle with bamboo. It echoes the complexity of her feelings on Earth, while the back is as solar as her birth in the bamboo. Her intellectual and physical freedom, constantly challenged, is represented by the Hakama inspired pants. Thus, the textile and the bamboo echo each other, creating a silhouette balancing fluidity and rigidity.
The significance of the ecological message through a modern reinterpretation is conveyed through a video projected in the exhibition space, accompanied by an immersive sound system, composed of sound derived from bamboo. A series of performances is also offered to the public, performed by the Butoh dancer in costume and a traditional bamboo flute player Shakuhachi accompanied by pre-recorded sounds.
Trailer
Full video
Credits
Photographs, video, sound | Daniel Campbell |
Butoh Dancer | Kana Kitty |