Film program and photobooks

The screening programme includes films and video works by six contemporary artists from Norway and Japan. The selected works opens up challenges about the way we perceive the constraints and limitations of the physical world while building a new narrative based on current ecological issues, folklore, spirituality and mythical figures as well as the invisible borders between humans and technological issues.

In cooralation with the filmprogram we will exhibit a selection of photographic books by women photographers. As a starting point for selecting the books we have been inspired by the book published by Aperture in 2024, I’m So Happy You Are Here: Japanese Women Photographers from the 1950s to Now. The publication presents a wide range of photographic approaches brought to bear on the lived experiences and perspectives of women in Japanese society.

Screening program:

MUD MAN (2016), Chikako Yamashiro (JP), 26 min (will only be shown twice, 12th of February and 9th of March)
I AM THE WEATHER (2018), Marte Aas (NO), 12:55 min
PLANET ∑ (2017), Momoko Seto (JP/FR), 11:49 min

GHOST NOTE (2024), Rie Toguchi (JP), 150:1 min
I FOUND YOU UNDER EARTH, UNDER BLOOD (2019), Ingrid Torvund and Jonas Mailand (NO), 27:30 min

Films:

The film Mud Man by Chikako Yamashiro is set on Okinawa and South Korea’s Jeju Islands, two locations at the center of local controversies surrounding the presence of the United States military. Japanese and Korean languages are mixed (a combination of unclear Japanese — Uchinaaguchi, fragments and mumbles in Korean and onomatopoeic sound effects to complement the narration), and the landscape of the two islands (Okinawa and Jeju Island) juxtaposed. The film tells the story of a community visited by bird droppings that resemble clumps of mud falling from the sky. These droppings awaken the slumbering people, who pick the clumps up to listen to voices emanating from within, and speaking of history and inheritance, nature and other communities. The work continues Yamashiro’s interest in employing flesh and earth as metaphors to personify the political body of Okinawa. It is a film hard to forget, addressing historical memory and layers contained in a territory in an original way; it deals metaphorically with the complexity of history, but also

By showing melting ice, the appearance of different forms of life, and the extinction of species in PLANET∑, Momoko Seto picks up the story of a distorted world, a poetic metaphor of our own evolution and the probability of its end due to climate change. The artist uses new audiovisual technological advances in order to conceive new gravitational laws and to juxtapose temporalities to vertigo. PLANET ∑, received the Audi Short Film Award at the 65th Berlinale a prize that distinguishes a work of “high artistic signature”, and has been integrated to Mori Art Tokyo Museum´s collection in 2017.

Ghost Note by Rie Toguchi. In music, particularly jazz, a ghost note holds rhythmic value but is inaudible during performance. Its purpose is to create an undertone beneath the primary groove, subtly weaving a sense of 16th-note groove around a powerful backbeat or specific accent. Listening to the voices of those who cry out for “correctness” and hearing the sound of hearts breaking, I continually tuned myself to be “normal” leading to days where my body ceased to move. During this time, I gazed as one fragile existence after another vanished from this world. It is impossible to choose to be born into this world, but it is possible to choose to disappear from it. What those who chose to disappear from this world have taken might have been like the final drop that causes a cup to overflow or the raindrop that wears away stone minute yet inevitably leading to a breaking point.

The film I Found You Under Earth, Under Blood is the final installment in the Under Earth trilogy by Ingrid Torvund and Jonas Bela Mailand. The films were shot in Vest-Telemark, in the area where Ingrid grew up, and this film also marks the last to be created there before the forest was cut down. The work on these films spanned several years, with every aspect of the production crafted by the two artists. Everything from costumes, props, and sets was meticulously handmade over an extended period and eventually brought together in these projects. I Found You Under Earth, Under Blood is a project that combines symbolism and rituals with a visual narrative inspired by the landscape. The process of creating the film reects a dedicated collaboration between two artists exploring the relationship between the personal and the universal.

I am the Weather by Marte Aas investigates the connections between the weather, methaphores and our digital reality. With Munch´s iconic painting The Scream as a starting point, the film takes us on a speculative journey through the infrastucture we take most for granted; the weather.

Bios:

Rie Toguchi is a Japanese artist currently works in Tokyo. Toguchi’s multimedia installation works, including painting, photography, glasswork, sound, video and text, explore the psychological structure in human society by reference to the idea of folklore, anthropology and philosophy. Her works particularly focus on the fragility of human’s insensible beliefs; spirituality in the existence of invisible borders between human and sacred places, the weirdness of social norms such as understanding for ‘eating’ and ‘sexual intercourse’, the mythological structure of Japanese pop idols’ culture, and the difficulty of having sexual perversion to live in the society.

Momoko Seto was born in Tokyo in 1980. She travelled to France to study Art at the École Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Marseille, then at the Le Fresnoy National Studio of Contemporary Art. She has been working as a film director at the CNRS (National Centre of Scientific Research) in Paris, since 2006. In 2021, she received the prestigious CNRS crystal for her work which combines art and science. For her personal work, she makes several short films related to nature, the microcosm, using different shooting techniques (high-speed camera, macro photography, timelapse, robotic, AI, 3D mapping, virtual reality, etc.) These films have received awards at numerous festivals (pre-selected for the French Césars, Audi prize at the Berlinale, grand prize at the Paris fantastic film festival, etc.). Her documentaries are regularly purchased and broadcast on France Télévision.
She is now working on her first feature film (MIYU, ecce films productions, ARTE, Canal+).

Chikako Yamashiro (1976) is a Japanese filmmaker and video artist. Her works in photography, video and performance create visual investigations into the history, politics and culture of her homeland Okinawa. Particularly salient are themes related to the terrible civilian casualties incurred in Okinawa during World War II and the on-going troubles and hardships caused by the U.S. military presence in Okinawa.Since 2019 she is associate professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts. Yamashiro has received various awards including the Kurashiki Contemporary Art Biennale (2005), the Asian Art Award (2017),[3] the Zonta prize at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen (2018), the Asian Art Asia Pacific Breweries Foundation Signature Art Prize (2018), and most recently, the Tokyo Contemporary Art Award (2020-2022)

Ingrid Torvund (b.1985) (NO) and Jonas Mailand (b.1985) (NO) works in film, sculpture and drawing. With their interest in storytelling and passion for visual narratives, they create audiovisual experiences that engage audiences and provoke thoughtful contemplation. By dissecting odd events from their own lives they explore the intersection of nature and culture. In this process they construct a personal mythology, rooted in nature and the landscape of Telemark, Norway. Their visual expression balance between the recognizable, intimate, magical and otherworldy. Since 2009 they have mainly worked with film and produced the film trilogy “Under earth» which consists of: “Magic blood machine” (2012), “When I go out I bleed magic” (2015) and “I found you under earth, under blood” (2019). Currently they are developing «Seeper Weeper Sleeper,» a series of episodic films and sculptures. Torvund (b. 1985) and Mailand (b. 1985) previous solo exhibitions include Les Atelier du Vent in Rennes, Pachinko gallery, Van Etten, Soft, Kunsthall Grenland. Together they have participated in several group exhibitions at, among others Kiasma in Helsinki, Hulias in Oslo, Galerie im Körnerpark in Berlin, Lillehammer kunstmuseum, Southbank Center in London.

Marte Aas (b. 1966, Trondheim) is a photographer and film maker based in Oslo. Aas´ main area of interest is the intersection between contemporary image culture, history, technology and landscape. Her work attempts to address underlying structures and gestures that form political and ideological narratives. Aas is educated at The School of Photography at The University of Gothenburg and has had a number of exhibitions and screenings in Norway and abroad, her last major exhibition was Francine (was a machine) at Kunsthall Trondheim in 2019. Aas has published several books and catalogues including Marte Aas – Photography and Film, 2010, Torshovtoppen, 2008 and On the Subject of Body and Space, 2013 and is also one of the founding members of the publishing house Multipress.

This exhibition will be followed by a film screening at Drammen Kino on 12th of February at 3 PM. Tickets available here.

On the 15th of February Buskerud Kunstsenter will host a workshop in Japanese bookbinding with artist Marie Sjøvold. More details and how to attend you will find here.

The exhibition and events will be part of Buskerud Kunstsenter’s contribution to the 120th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between Japan and Norway in 2025. We thank the Embassy of Japan in Norway for good cooperation and the opportunity to participate in the anniversary program.

The events are supported by the Norwegian Cultural Council and Fritt Ord.