KOHEI NAWA

Sculptor Kohei Nawa and dancer Min Tanaka will present their first collaborative performance "From the Edge" at YCC Kenmin Bunka Hall (Yamanashi Prefecture Citizen’s Cultural Hall) in Yamanashi, Japan.

Since the 70s, Min Tanaka has expanded his unconventional and experimental activities in search of the relationship between the body and the world. One such was the Hakushu Festival, which took place in a mountain village in Yamanashi prefecture, where he resided. Kohei Nawa participated in this pathbreaking outdoor art festival in Japan as a volunteer staff member—the experience, he claims, strongly influenced him.

As the information age advances, people’s sense of physicality fades; expressions without embodiment have begun to prevail. Where is humankind headed? Bodies are the first inherent surroundings for all living things and simultaneously a point of contact with the outer environment. Tanaka and Nawa have each paved the way for new possibilities in artistic creation by facing the bodies while vis-à-vis the social milieux of the different classes and strata. The two artists now venture on this theatrical project in Yamanashi, the place of their first encounter.

On stage, the vulture, considered to possess the power over life and death, stands still as if transcending time while universal motifs such as the mud and the fog fill up the space constantly shifting their forms. Viewing the human body and materials as a continuum, Nawa has sought perceptions that arise in the convection caused by the gradient. His works, despite the apparent tranquility, evoke a dynamic time-space where every substance continuously collides and yet harmonizes with each other. A dance will manifest itself between such a locale, Tanaka’s body, and the audience’s bodies; thus, emerges the stage work as an ever-transitory phenomenon—a true representation of waves coming and going from the other shore to this shore. The event (situation) will be presented to the audience engraving an indelible impression on their memory.

Dates/Time: January 10 (Wed) / 18:30 -  (Doors open at 17:45)
January 11 (Thu) / 13:30 -  (Doors open at 12:45)
January 11 (Thu) / 18:30 - (Doors open at 17:45)
Venue: YCC Kenmin Bunka Hall (Yamanashi Prefecture Citizen’s Cultural Hall)
26-1, Kotobuki-cho, Kofu city, Yamanashi 400-0033, Japan

Tickets:
■ Ticket Pia【P-code: 651-481】
■ Lawson Ticket【 L-code: 32475】
■ e+
■ YCC Kenmin Bunka Hall
Box Office: 26-1, Kotobuki-cho, Kofu city, Yamanashi  TEL 055-228-9131
■ UTY Television Yamanashi
Over the phone and at the counter: 2-13-1 Yuda, Kofu City, Yamanashi  TEL 055-232-1118 (9:30–18:30 weekdays)

Directed and composed by Min Tanaka | Kohei Nawa
Dance: Min Tanaka
Art: Kohei Nawa
Music: Marihiko Hara
Sound engineering: Raku Nakahara
Lighting: Yukiko Yoshimoto
Stage management: Masaya Natsume
Costume: Gembey Yamaguchi
Costume and hair styling: Rin Ishihara
Photo documentation: Itaru Hirama
Publicity Design: Takuma Hayashi
Volunteer participants: The Youth of Yamanashi

Conceived, organized, and co-presented by Madada Inc. + Sandwich Inc.

Supported by Valuence
Thanks to Oogoya Co., Ltd., Zabuton-tei Furyu Kikaku, SCAI THE BATHHOUSE, Gembey Yamaguchi (Kondaya Gembey Inc.)

Presented by Yamanashi Stage Art Project 2023 Committee, Japanese Council of Performers Rights and Performing Arts Organization (GEIDANKYO), Television Yamanashi Co., Ltd.
Generous support provided by The Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan (Cultural and artistic demand recovery and regional revitalization project (Art Caravan 2)) | JAPAN LIVE YELL project by the Japan Arts Council

From the Edge