Subbing The Subbing
2016 Made in Bangkok, Thailand
Work format: Video installation (Dimension variable)
Materials: 2 TVs
Introduction:
In Spain, there is a town inhabited by people with the surname Japón, which means Japan in Spanish.
400 years ago a group of Samurai traveled to Europe for some missions.
During their journey, Christianity was prohibited in Japan and some of the Samurais decided to remain to live in Spain to live as Christian. Those named Japón in the Spanish town today are regarded as possible descendants of the Samurai from history.
The work EL JAPONÉS aligns the artist himself as a “Japanese person who just came from Japan” and Mrs. Japón as a “descendant of historically the first migrant from Japan”.
The dialog itself looks like a simple praise of communication but the two juxtaposed "Japanese" people imply and ask different notions such as "nationality", "race" and "immigrant integration".
Special thanks: Mr. and Ms. Japóns whom I met in Coria del Rio
OPEN WINDOW PROJECT
2009 Performance in Berlin, Germany
Work format: Performance
Introduction
At the time of the project, I was living in Berlin. Berlin is very cosmopolitan just like other major cities like London or New York. If you take a train, you wouldn’t hear only German but also English, Spanish, Turkish and so on.
If you look at a typical Berlin old apartment like the place I rent, it would be also like a miniature of the earth where there were people from different backgrounds and cultures. A typical Berlin old apartment has an inner yard and I liked to spend time there. One morning I was at the yard and heard a singing from a window and at the same time the Islamic Koran from a different window. They combined in the atmosphere of the yard...
One Sunday, I asked all the residents of the apartment to open their windows by the inner yard for a period of time.
As an outcome, many different sounds of different backgrounds or lifestyles met at the inner yard to make an ensemble of the modern cosmopolice.