What we do

Subtle

  • Organization : TV MAN UNION, INC.
  • Section : None
  • Type of Grant Program : Single
  • Art Forms : Visual Art / Media Art

Outline

Rei Naito is an artist who has produced a number of works that inspire quiet amazement in those who have experienced them. Her masterpiece Matrix (Teshima Art Museum) is a space evocative of a gigantic life-form that welcomes everyone and everything inside it. Upon encountering Matrix, director Yuko Nakamura felt irresistibly drawn by its power and spent two years filming Naito after receiving her permission to make a documentary about her. However, in the middle of making the documentary, Naito withdrew her permission for further filming, saying, “When I’m filmed, I can’t create anything.”
The director abandoned the idea of making the documentary for a while, but then decided that, rather than making Naito the subject, she would focus on the question at the heart of Naito’s art: is being alive actually something to celebrate? So, as though filling the gap left by Naito’s absence, she went and met five women. They gathered at Matrix and spoke about life and death, and the pain that they felt. The director’s own inner need to film Matrix and the sensitivity of the women to whom she talked gradually combine to evolve into an experience akin to a prayer.

Profile

TV MAN UNION, INC.
Founded in 1970. The first independent TV production in Japan. TV MAN UNION, INC. has received many prizes for its new methodology of direction in the television world. The company received the Kan Kikuchi Prize (2005) and the Mainichi Art Award (2013).

Rei Naito: Selected to exhibit at the Japanese pavilion in Venice Biennale 1997. She received the Asahi Group Arts Foundation Prize. She is a contemporary artist that represents Japan.

Yuko Nakamura: Her work Memories of Origin Hiroshi Sugimoto was the nominee in the category of Arts Programming, International Emmy Award 2012.

Contact

Miyuki Fukuma
International Producer
TV MAN UNION,Inc.
5-57-67 Cosmos Aoyama South,
Jingu Mae Shibuya-ku
Tokyo150-0001
Tel:+81-(0)3-6418-8383
E-mail: miyukif@bunbukubun.com

Venues

Shibuya Theatre Image Forum(Shibuya City, Tokyo) and others