Beyond the sunbeam through trees by Noritoshi Hirakawa, with Michael Rother (Musician), Yoko Ando (Dancer) :: until August 21, 2011 :: YCAM [Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media], 7-7 Nakazono-cho, Yamaguchi, 7530075 Japan.

Contemporary artist Noritoshi Hirakawa has been examining individual interpretations of free will to live utilizing a wide range of styles and rather propositional artistic language since the 1980s. This exhibition introducing his long-awaited new work is an experimental attempt to enhance the methodology of past audiovisual installations produced and presented at YCAM, by adding a performance element to the basic installation incorporating light, imagery and sound.

In this work, the emotions and movements born out of a single woman’s struggle are expressed through various technology-based interaction between light, imagery and sound. The audience participation- based system behind this work is designed to channel the spectator’s consciousness and energy into a cyclic mechanism that stimulates the female protagonist’s consciousness and thus animates the work itself. While experiencing a gradually transforming space-time, visitors will be able to perceive the existence of their own energy.

Composer/musician Michael Rother and dancer Yoko Ando took charge of the creation of visuals and sounds that, in concert with the dynamics of light, define the piece’s distinctive flavor. Their residence at YCAM was for the three artists a period of mutual inspiration and stimulation, and we are now proud to present the much anticipated result of these internationally renowned creators’ first ever collaboration.

Organized by: Yamaguchi City Foundation for Cultural Promotion
In association with: Yamaguchi City, Yamaguchi City Board of Education
Grants from: THE ASAHI SHIMBUN FOUNDATION
Supported by: The Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan (FY 2011)
Cooperation: Watari Museum of Contemporary Art; The Museum of Modern Art, Gunma; WAKO WORKS OF ART; Gallery HAM; NANZUKA UNDERGROUND; Tomo Suzuki Japan Equipment cooperation: Color Kinetics Japan Incorporated
Technical support: YCAM InterLab
Produced by: Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media [YCAM]
Curator: Kazunao Abe (YCAM)

YCAM [Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media] is a cultural complex that opened in 2003 with a theater, exhibition spaces and a small cinema, in addition to the central municipal public library. This shared platform for media technology has hosted theater and dance performances, art exhibitions, film screenings, music/sound events, workshops, and lectures.

Work in-residence and traveling exhibitions/performances of original pieces

YCAM’s most outstanding feature is that not only existing, internationally recognized works of art are being introduced here, but the Center also produces and exhibits works developed in artist residencies. Several artists have so far produced works of international acclaim in collaboration with YCAM’s own production section, the YCAM InterLab. The facility’s unique educational activities provide Yamaguchi citizens with opportunities to nurture their imaginative faculties and media literacy by stimulating their thoughts about art and technology.

YCAM’s objectives are to connect the Yamaguchi region to the world, and via the key concepts of “creative understanding, “creative methods”, and “creative environments”, serve as a platform for people to meet, discuss, and ultimately create and communicate novel forms of information art.