Immigration Museum TOKYO The Form of Encounters
Experiencing different cultures through art
Look closer and you can find, side by side with the familiar, a whole other culture. Every Sunday, Mass is held at a church in Umejima in Adachi ward, bringing together a mini Filipino community in this corner of Tokyo. With its vibrant singing and dancing, the church is a place for cultural interchange by diverse means. Immigration Museum Tokyo (IMM) is a civic art project exploring fascinating encounters with the city’s non-Japanese residents in Adachi. How do the ethnically and nationally diverse residents feel about living in Japan? Find out for yourself!
IMM started in 2011 and has been based in the Adachi area of Tokyo since 2013. It employs the means of contemporary art to explore the relationship between Japanese and non-Japanese residents through three themes of adaptation, conservation and assimilation. In February 2015, IMM will organize a talk and two performances at Catholic Umeda Church in the heart of Adachi, as well as an exhibition event at Kita-senju reporting on its pilot activities so far. For the next fiscal year it plans a full exhibition reporting on the research it has been carrying out since last year.
Shigeaki Iwai
■Performances & Talk
Dates|2.11(Wed.), 2015
Hours|13:00-15:00[Open 12:30]
Admission| Free
Venue| Umeda Catholic Church, 7-19-22 Umeda, Adachi-ku
Access|Umejima station (East exit) 5 min on foot
Capacity|50(Booking available)
・Performances
Ryuhei Uemoto(Performing Artist)+Marie Ogata(Office Worker)
Trace / Follow
Based on the reminiscences of a non-Japanese person living in Japan, this performance traces their country’s forms of dance and play, finding connections between a different culture and “your” memories. It is an attempt to go beyond nations and people, and follow the vestiges of memory inside the movements of the body.
Tomomi Ide(Office Worker)+Iroha Gouda(Student)
Jollibee
What is your impression of Philippine cuisine? Spicy? Sour? Sweet? This performance reveals our misunderstandings and shared ideas by exploring the mysteries of Philippine food culture.
Talk: “ What is ‘ Tokyo’ for non-Japanese residents? ”
Guest|Shuko Ebihara (Representative of Shinjuku Art Project)
Wei Ting (Shinjuku Art Project)
Alec LeMay, Ph. D (Sophia University’s Center for Language, Education and Research)
Fr. Hiroyuki Arakawa(Umeda Catholic Church, Pastor)
Navigator|Shigeaki Iwai(Immigration Museum TOKYO)
■Exhibitions
Dates| 2.14-15(Sat.-Sun.), 2015
Hours| 10:00-19:00
Admission| Free
Venue| Studio Hinode apartment, #103 Hinode apartment Building 1, 27 Hinode-cho, Adachi-ku
Access|Kitasenju station (East exit) 5 min on foot
Toshiharu Tsurumaki(Office Worker)+Yukiko Hashima(Office Worker)+Kazuyuki Miyamoto(Artist)
Alternative Kita-senju Story
How do non-Japanese residents view the area of Kita-senju in Tokyo? This installation features “another Kita-senju”, created out of tours of the area led by non-Japanese guides.
Kang Hyeon-sik(Student)
Melody, Voice
People see and feel new things in the context of their own memories and experiences. Here non-Japanese residents sing a song familiar to almost all Japanese people. By this act, they create something new with their voices through sounds that are both similar and different to the “original”.
Keijiro Nakamori(Documentary Filmmaker)
Video Documentation
How to apply / Conact
[WEB] http://aaa-senju.com/contact
[Call] 03-6806-1740(Between 13:00 and 18:00, except on Tuesdays and Thursdays)
[Email] info@aaa-senju.com
Please write “IMM Performance & Talk” in the subject heading and email the following information to info@aaa-senju.com: Your name, Phone number, Email address and the number of participants.
※Please ensure that emails sent from info@aaa-senju.com are not treated as spam/junk mail.
※Confidentiality of personal information will be strictly respected and will not be used for any other purpose.
Produce and Supervision| Shigeaki Iwai
Technical Support| Keitetsu Murai
Supported by ICHIBA COMMUNYTY FOUNDATION