Voice of Session House 2021: What Has Been Asked of Us Under the Pandemic…
Although we have entered the third year of the coronavirus crisis, the situation continues to advance and retreat, leaving no room for complacency. Many difficulties stand in the way of our activities, forcing us into a daily struggle. On top of that, while we are editing this booklet, a war causing many casualties has broken out in Ukraine. We might say that we are now in just such a situation as Kamo no Chomei described long ago in Hojoki, lamenting a world beset by epidemics, natural disasters such as earthquakes and violent storms, and warfare: “The old capital is already in ruins; the new capital is not yet complete. Every living person feels adrift like a floating cloud.”
And this pandemic, which might be called unprecedented, has aspects that are very difficult to make visible, unlike war, where we can readily see streets destroyed by shells and the figures of wounded people. Yet even while placed in such hard-to-visualize circumstances, dancers and artists seem to have deepened something that could be called dialogue within themselves, precisely because opportunities for dialogue between people have been restricted. I also feel that quite a few works embodying this have emerged.
At Session House, this tendency seemed pronounced both in Dance Bridge, which presented works by choreographers with extensive stage experience, and in Future Dance, a program centered on individual performances by young dancers. At exhibitions too, I feel that tension-filled works that seem to gaze intently into the artist’s own heart have become increasingly noticeable.
In his essay “Facing Catastrophe,” the Chinese writer Yan Lianke, whom I also mentioned in last year’s opening editorial, explained the importance of each individual making their thoroughly considered words—different sounds—resonate, amid signs of the arrival of the dystopia depicted by George Orwell: in other words, pressure to conform and a surveillance society. Could we not say that a momentum to respond to precisely that question has now emerged?
I hope you will listen to the diverse voices of the dancers and artists who have put such activities into practice.
(Written by Takashi Ito, Session House Planning Office)
Participating in the group art exhibition “Resisting the Arrival of Dystopia”
Photographic work by Blanca Takahashi (高橋ブランカ)
“Even the Birds Are Long-Distance”
