MONKEY 2018

In 2018, I was selected for an artistic research residency in the Tokyo region, Japan. My research project consisted of an anthropological observation of contemporary Japanese culture and its relationship to ritual, with the aim of composing a performative work.

Monkey is a walking performance around the Meiji-jingū temple, with the route concluding at the southern axis of the temple.

It is an analogy with the condition of a society whose foundation can break at any moment, and whose structures rely on mechanisms that allow it to maintain balance. 

In Japanese society, on both the environmental and individual levels, one carries and endures with resignation the hardships that geographical, cultural, and economic constraints prevent from being remedied.

In such a context, agility and flexibility — whether physical or mental — take precedence over brute strength and obstruction.