Video Information Center - Part II
From Kishio Suga Event (2) Art&Project Mr. Yutaka Matsuzawa (1) July 2, 1974［VIC0024］
From March-May 2024, as part of our Community of Images series and in collaboration with Hitoshi Kubo of Keio University Art Center, we are thrilled to present a three-month feature on the early Japanese video collective, the Video Information Center (VIC). The extensive program is an introduction to the group’s tireless documentation of underground arts and culture in Japan’s 1970s and 1980s. Our April program (Part II) features 9 of VIC’s recordings, including a performance by Shūji Terayama’s Tenjō Saijiki, a document of new year’s mochi pounding in Kichijōji, and an exhibition of artist Kishio Suga with appearances from Yutaka Matsuzawa and Jirō Takamatsu.
This month’s program is accompanied by a new translation of an essay by Hitoshi Kubo, “Multiple Para-Visions!―― on VIC’s Remoteness and Closeness / Big Events and Small Events,” first published in KUAC Cinematheque 1: Video is a Toy! VIC #1 (Keio University Art Center, 2017).
The program is facilitated by Keio University Art Center’s project, the Agency for Cultural Affairs in Japan Support Program to Promote Archives of Media Arts 2023: Digitizing and Cataloging of Performance and Exhibition Video Records from the post-1970s.
The Video Information Center (VIC), an art collective that worked with video as their main media, was started in 1972 by students of the International Christian University (ICU), Tokyo, as a sub-group of ICU shоgekijо (little-theater), a student-run theater community. VIC was founded by six members—Yusuke Itо, Yasuhiko Suga, Hisashi Noyama, Makoto Uchiki, Sоichi Ishii, and led by Ichirо Tezuka. The group’s activities may be sorted into the following five categories: “creating a collection of recorded events, regardless of high-brow or low-brow,” “experimentation in communication via video technology,” “organizing video-related events,” “communication with artistic groups in and out of Japan,” and “creating a broad platform for video.” Specifically the group’s activities began with their broadcasting in the ICU school cafeteria, and branched out into many fields. Their activities include a conceived proposal for a “soft museum (sofuto musiamu),” various video recording sessions of dance, theater, exhibitions, symposiums, concerts and other odd events such as activities of a mother's volleyball club. Also notably, based out of their residence, a small apartment complex, in Mitaka, Tokyo, the group experimented with cable television, calling the program Cable Paravision Ten. VIC worked closely and often in correspondence with other groups oriented toward video art such as Video Hiroba (hiroba refers to an open communal space such as a plaza or park) run by Fujiko Nakaya, Katsuhiro Yamaguchi, and others. VIC also had connections with overseas artistic groups and participated in the 1979 MoMA exhibition Video from Tokyo to Fukui and Kyoto (April 19–June 19) curated by Barbara London.
The present program will be presented over the next three months in three parts Part I, Part II, and Part III, focusing on the following three categories Category A - Collected records of events, Category B - Experimentation in cable television, and Category C - Video events organized by VIC. Each phase from I through III have been designed as to give a thorough taste of all three categories A, B, and C. The methodical ideals of VIC, that the videos “shall not be edited” have been honored, and in the program each video, now digitized, is shown from beginning to end without manipulation. Physical wear on the original tape footage will appear as occasional disruption. We thank our audience in advance for their graceful acceptance of the states in which these videos have been digitized and archived. Our hopes are to create an opportunity to catch a glimpse of the vast variety of activities encapsulated in VIC’s career.
Category A. Integrated records of events
A-0. Collected records of events from category A-1 to A-4 edited by VIC
A-1. Exhibitions/Performances: Art, Dance, Theater, Music concerts
A-2. Symposiums
A-3. Interviews
A-4. Non-art
Category B. Experimentation in cable television: Cable Paravision Ten
Category C. Video events organized by VIC
C-1. Video Workshop
C-2. Video Competition
We would like to gratefully acknowledge the major support received in presenting this program from the following: the Keio University Art Center, and the Agency for Cultural Affairs in Japan Support Program to Promote Archives of Media Arts 2023: Digitizing and Cataloging of Performance and Exhibition Video Records from the post-1970s.
Hitoshi Kubo
Translated by Miyuki Hinton
VIC（ビデオ・インフォメーション・センター）は、1972年、ICU（国際基督教大学）の演劇サークルであるICU小劇場を母胎として開始した。設立時のメンバーは6名で、伊藤裕介・菅靖彦・野山尚志・内木誠・石井宗一、そして手塚一郎が代表をつとめた。その活動は、「ハイ&ローを問わない網羅的なイベントの記録」「ビデオ・テクノロジーを用いたコミュニケーションの実験」「ビデオ関連イベントの企画」「国内外の芸術グループとのコミュニケーション」「ビデオの普及活動」の大きく5つに分類することができる。具体的には、ICUの学生食堂における放送から始まり、「ソフトミュージアム」構想、ダンス・演劇・展覧会・シンポジウム・ママさんバレー・コンサートなど多様なイベントの網羅的なビデオ記録、三鷹のアパートでのCATV実験である《Cable Paravision Ten》などを行った。VICは、中谷芙二子・山口勝弘をメンバーとする「ビデオひろば」など、同時代のビデオを巡る動向と連動しながら活動を行っていた。海外のグループとの交流もあり、1979年にはニューヨーク近代美術館（MoMA）で開催された展覧会「Video From Tokyo To Fukui and Kyoto（ヴィデオ東京から福井と京都まで）」（1979年4月19日-6月19日）にも出品した。
本プログラムでは、以下3つのカテゴリー、A.網羅的なイベント記録、B.ケーブルテレビの実験、C.VIC企画のビデオ関連イベントに基づいて第I期から第III期の3ヶ月間にわたりVICの映像を紹介する。各期にわたり各カテゴリーの映像をおよそまんべんなく見られるように組んでいる。
VICが記録における方法の一つとして捉えていた「未編集」であることを尊重し、残されたテープの最初から最後までをデジタル化したデータをそのまま上映する。テープの経年劣化によって映像の中で見にくい箇所があるがご了承いただきたい。VICの多様な活動の一端が垣間見えれば幸いである。
A. 網羅的なイベント記録：
A-1. パフォーマンス（美術およびダンス・演劇・音楽コンサートなどのパフォーミング・アーツ）
A-2. シンポジウム
A-3. インタヴュー
A-4. 非芸術関連
B. ケーブルテレビの実験：「Cable Paravision Ten」
C. VIC企画のビデオ関連イベント：
C-1. ビデオ・ワークショップ
C-2. ビデオ・コンペディション
本プログラムを実現するにあたり、慶應義塾大学アート・センターおよび令和5年度 メディア芸術アーカイブ推進支援事業 メディアアート分野「1970年代以降のパフォーマンスおよび展覧会のビデオ記録のデジタル化・レコード化」（Support Program to Promote Archives of Media Arts 2023: Digitizing and Cataloging of Performance and Exhibition Video Records from the post-1970s.）の協力を得た。
久保仁志
PROGRAM - Part II
Part II-1. VICVideo_Tape_File
Part II-2. Kishio Suga, Event at the Tokiwa park (1) 1/11［Act 1］, Kishio Suga, Event at the Tokiwa park (2) 1/11［Act 2］
Part II-3. Tenjō Sajiki Ekibyō ryūkō ki (1) 8［Act 1］, Tenjō Sajiki Ekibyō ryūkō ki (2) 9［Act 2］
Part II-4. Simone Forti (1) December 12, Seibu gekijō
Part II-5. Kishio Suga Event (2) Art&Project Mr. Yutaka Matsuzawa (1) July 2, 1974
Part II-6. Akira Kasai interview
Part II-7. VIDEO INFORMATION CENTER Mochi pounding 1984.1.7
Part II-8. CATV-PROGRAM R#5 1977/1/25,29,30 2/6,7 No.42-47 B3 84.2.15
Part II-9. 1981 8/30 Parco VIDEO STATION
II-1.《VICVideo_Tape_File》
II-2.《菅木志雄イベント公園① 1/11》［1］《菅木志雄イベント公園② 1/11》［2］
II-3.《天井桟敷「疫病流行記」① 8》［1］《天井桟敷「疫病流行記」② 9》［2］
II-4.《Simone Forti① 2／12 於西武劇場》
II-5.《菅木志雄EVENT② Art&Project 松沢宥氏① 74/7/2》
II-6.《笠井アキラ インタビュー》
II-7.《VIDEO INFORMATION CENTER もちつき 1984.1.7》
II-8.《CATV-PROGRAM R#5 1977/1/25,29,30 2/6,7 No.42-47 B3 84.2.15》
II-9.《1981 8/30 Parcoビデオ・ステーション》
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THE PROGRAM WILL BE AVAILABLE FOR VIEWING ON CCJ’S VIEWING PLATFORM.
This Members Viewing program is supported, in part, by a grant from the Toshiba International Foundation.
Program
*【Formatting Notes】
Information is provided in the following order:
Videotape title: This line consists of a faithful transcription of the video’s handwritten label (may include abbreviations and potential errors). The English program provides a translation of the original Japanese. See Japanese program for rendition of original title provided in《》.
Reference code provided in brackets.
Black and white/ color
Length
Individuals and groups of relevance
Date
Format：OS (1/2 Open-reel Short); OL (1/2 Open-reel Long); U (U-matic); B (Betamax)
Name of event (Place of event)
Description
Act numbers are provided in brackets
*【Translation Notes】
Proper names are those from the time of the events. Certain names/places currently may be in disuse/no longer exist.
(1), (2), (3), refers to a videotape label number when events are recorded on multiple tapes.
Translations and supplementary information are provided in () after the first appearance of Japanese proper names.
Work titles appear in the following order: Japanese transcription (English translation).
Part II-1. VIC Video_Tape_File［VIC1211］｜black and white／color｜15 min 33 sec｜various｜n.d.｜various｜various (Category A-0 - Collected records of events)
This video was compiled and edited by VIC members as an introduction of VIC. 111 events were selected out of all of VIC’s records, and multiple copies of the video were made; however not all copies have survived. The present digitization was based on a digital copy owned by Sōichi Ishii, member of VIC. The original tape is lost.
VICが記録した出来事の中から111本のテープを選び編集したVIC紹介のためのテープ。何本か作成されているようだが、全てが残っているわけでもなく、こちらはVICメンバーだった石井宗一が持っていたデジタルデータを引き受けたものであり、元のテープは見つかっていない。
Part II-2. Kishio Suga, Event at the Tokiwa park (1) 1/11［VIC0057］｜black and white｜33 min 8 sec｜Kishio Suga｜January 11, 1975｜OL｜Kishio Suga Exhibition（Tokiwa garō (Tokiwa gallery)）［Act 1］
Kishio Suga, Event at the Tokiwa park (2) 1/11［VIC0058］｜black and white｜33 min 51 sec｜Kishio Suga｜January 11, 1975｜OL｜Kishio Suga Exhibition (Tokiwa garō (Tokiwa gallery)) [Act 2］(Category A-1 - Performance)
Branches and other items fill up a space, like a coral reef: this work by Kishio Suga entitled Ikyо̄ (a combination of the two kanji characters meaning “reliance” and “situation”) is presented here in the exhibition space of Kishio Suga’s solo exhibition at the Tokiwa garо̄ (Tokiwa gallery) in Tokyo’s Nihonbashi area. An Event by Suga held at the Tokiwa park is also documented in this video. Twine is used to create globe shaped spheres whichand those are seen unraveled at a later time—its traces are erased while the act creates a layered complexity of space within the park. Suga, considered one of the leading artists of the Monoha group, speaks of his practice in an interview with the VIC: “My work tends to disappear quickly. […] to do things that dispense with language, that is where I am headed” (as featured in Part 1 as Kishio Suga Exhibition Event (1) [VIC0056]). Filming by Yasuhiko Suga.
木の枝等が珊瑚礁のように展示室に展開している作品《依況》が展示されたときわ画廊（東京都中央区日本橋）での菅木志雄の個展。および同展にあわせて常磐公園で行われた「イヴェント」──たこ糸を用いて、仮設的な形体を次々に作り出してはその痕跡を消していきながら、公園内に重層的な空間を構築している──が記録されている。菅は「もの派」を代表する作家の一人と考えられている。自身の制作についてVICによるインタヴューの中で菅は次のように語っている。「僕が作ったものはすぐなくなっちゃうけども［…］言葉がなくてもできるとこ、そういうとこを目指したいですね。」（《菅木志雄展 EVENT①》［VIC0056］）。本記録は菅靖彦撮影。
Part II-3. Tenjō Sajiki Ekibyō ryūkō ki (1) 8［VIC0162］｜black and white｜51 min 50 sec｜Tenjō Sajiki｜October 22, 1975［June 3, 1976 in the PARC catalogue］｜U｜Ekibyō ryūkō ki（Shibuya Epicuruse）［Act 1］
Tenjō Sajiki Ekibyō ryūkō ki (2) 9［VIC0164］｜black and white｜1 hr 2 min 32 sec｜Tenjō Sajiki｜October 22, 1975［June 3, 1976 in the PARC catalogue］｜U｜Ekibyō ryūkō ki（Shibuya Epicuruse）［Act 2］
(Category A-1 - Performance)
Tenjō Sajiki was a theater troupe led by Shūji Terayama. The name was inspired by French filmmaker Marcel Carné’s Les Enfants du Paradis (in English, Children of Paradise), referring to the audience who sat in a theater’s upper balcony seats, often referred to in English as the “nosebleed section.” Ekibyо̄ ryūkо̄ ki (Journal of the Plague Year) is one of the Tenjō Sajiki troup’s staple stage pieces. As stated in the bulletin Engeki jikken shitsu (theater experimentation lab) number 17 “A young woman who chants ‘I am your plague,’ two men who have fantasy visions about the South; is the plague a reference to history repeating itself?,” the plague here is seen not only as a disease but as a human condition. In a 2017 interview Ichirо̄ Tezuka described the filming process as follows: “first the performance was filmed with the audience in the house. Then it was filmed a second time without an audience but with adequate light for filming.” This exemplifies a remarkable sensitivity Shūji Terayama had with regard to record making, given that most theatrical concerns of the time were centered around the idea of serendipitous singularity associated with a performance.
天井桟敷は寺山修司が主宰した劇団。劇団名はマルセル・カルネの映画『Les Enfants du Paradis（邦題：天井桟敷の人々）』に由来する。「疫病流行記」は天井桟敷を代表する演目の一つ。「『わたしはあなたの病気です』と呪文を唱える不思議の国から来た少女 南方憧憬に憑かれた二人の海の男 伝染とは反復する歴史の同義語だろうか？［…］」（『演劇実験室 天井桟敷』17号）とあるように疫病を単なる病気として捉えるのではなく、ある種の人間の条件として捉えた作品。「観客が入っている公演を撮影した後、観客なしでホールを明るくして撮影した。」（2017年に行われた手塚一郎へのインタビューによる）と手塚一郎が語っているように、同時代の演劇活動が一回性のドラマツルギーに血道をあげていた中、記録とその役割に対する寺山修司の意識は高かったと言えるだろう。
Part II-4. Simone Forti (1) December 12, Seibu gekijō［VIC0061］｜black and white｜1 hr 33 sec｜Simone Forti｜December 12, 1975｜OL｜Oto to ugoki (Sound and movement): Gendai butō shirīzu posuto modan dansu—Dance Today ’75
(presented with the English title Dance Today ’75: Contemporary Dance Series—Post Modern Dance)（Seibu gekijō (Seibu Theater)）(Category A-1 - Performance)
The following words from 2021 by Simone Forti demonstrate her artistic searching. “A human kid will walk down the street and if there is a little ledge to jump on, they’ll jump on it and then jump off and then they might touch something and twirl. And I think as artists, we give ourselves a situation where you can do that.” (See interview with Simone Forti, November 12, 2021). The playfulness manifested in dance motions, that come alive when humans and artifacts are equal entities and thus agents of dance, are of essential concern in Forti’s choreography. In the iconic series Dance Constructions (1961), objects such as a seesaw, a tilted ply-wood board, and a box with wheels are situated in shifting relationships with the human body. In this particular performance entitled Oto to ugoki (Sound and movement) at the Seibu gekijō, the performance begins with the following lines read in Japanese: “I believe I have witnessed a nose-to-nose confrontation between a bee and a fly.” The staging notably features a set of spotlights, and a diagram placed mid-air in the back space, both forming a figure eight. The movement patterns seem to aim toward a sense of fulfillment of those abstract configurations. Mid-film, the footage from a camera near the stage floor is projected on a monitor, thereby further complicating the relationships among featured movements.
「人間の子が道を歩いていて、飛び乗れる小さな出っ張りがあれば、そこに飛び乗ったり降りたり、何かに触れてくるくる回るかもしれません。そしてアーティストとして、私たちはそんなことができる状況を自らに与えていると思います。」というシモーヌ・フォルティの言葉は彼女の探求を端的に表現している。フォルティは、人と構造物とが上下のない等価なダンスのエージェントとして存在するときに現れる遊戯的な運動を作品化している。代表的シリーズ「ダンス・コンストラクション」（Dance Constructions）（1961）の中では、シーソーや、傾いた板、車輪のついた箱などといった構造物と身体との様々な諸関係を構築している。本作は「私は、蜂と蝿が顔すれすれに面と向き合っているのを見たように思う」という言葉から始まり、8の字形のスポットライトと奥に吊り下げられた8の字形のダイアグラムを踏破しつくそうとするような動きのパターンが模索される。途中から舞台の足元を撮影するカメラ映像がモニターによって流され、より複数の諸関係を生み出す運動へと重層化していく。
Part II-5. Kishio Suga Event (2) Art&Project Mr. Yutaka Matsuzawa (1) July 2, 1974［VIC0024］｜black and white｜32 min 58 sec｜Kishio Suga／Yutaka Matsuzawa, Taii Serizawa, Kishio Suga, Nobuo Sekine, Jiro Takamatsu, and Yusuke Nakahara｜August 2, 1974／August 3, 1974｜U｜Kishio Suga Exhibition Show and Event （Tamura garō (Tamura gallery)）／Art & Project［an exhibition］/Symposium: ’60→’70 Geijutsu wa kawatta ka? (’60→’70 Has art changed?)（Muramatsu garō (Muramatsu gallery)）
(Category A-2. Symposiums)
This is a continuation of a document of an Event staged in the space of Suga’s solo exhibition presenting the work Izon’i (Units of dependance), consisting of patches of grass grown along the cracks of a wall-like assembly of blocks (a continuation of Kishio Suga Exhibition Event (1) featured in Part I). Also included is a reel from an exhibition showing a series of back-numbers of the Art & Project bulletin released by the Amsterdam gallery Art & Project. In addition, the video features a symposium held in conjunction with Suga’s exhibition.
In the filmed Event, Suga adheres tape to the walls and floors of the exhibition space, and at times cuts off and removes segments. The act is repeated. Blocks, rocks, and other material placed on the floor form a kind of temporality as they are mediated within the space in part by the artist’s body. The exhibition is also featured in the video, including scenes in which Yutaka Matsuzawa, one of the organizers, is shown describing the work, along with part of a symposium, moderated by Yūsuke Nakahara, another organizer of the exhibition. The symposium features Nobuo Sekine, Taii Serizawa, Kishio Suga, and Jirо̄ Takamatsu as lecturers, and each in turn discuss their recent work and activities.
コンクリート・ブロックで草を挟み壁状に這わせた作品《依存位》が展示された個展の会場において行われた菅木志雄による「イヴェント」（I期の《菅木志雄展 EVENT①》の続き）、ならびにオランダの画廊Art & Projectが展覧会の告知のために発行していた印刷物のバックナンバーを展示した「ART & PROJECT展」の会場、および同展に際して開催されたシンポジウムの様子が記録されている。前者の「イヴェント」においては菅が会場の壁面や床面にテープを貼り、あるいは切断したり剥がす行為を繰り返し、床面に置かれたブロックや丸石などの素材や展示空間自体とともに自身の身体をも媒介しながら仮設的な空間を構成していく様子が映っている。後者の展覧会については、企画者であった松澤宥がその趣旨について説明する姿や展示物の様子、同じく企画者であった中原佑介の司会により進行されたシンポジウムの模様が途中まで記録されている。同シンポジウムでは講師として関根信夫、芹沢タイイ、菅木志雄、高松次郎の4名が登壇し、各自が近況を語っている。
Part II-6. Akira Kasai interview［VIC0204］｜color｜1 hr 3 min 17 sec｜Akira Kasai｜June 22, 1976｜OL｜［interview］
Category A-3. Interviews
This is an interview of Akira Kasai who is a dancer with roots in both classical ballet and butoh—another work by Akira Kasai, Denju no mon (Gate of Initiation), is featured in Part I. In this video, Kasai is interviewed by Ichirо̄ Tezuka. The interview took place in a bamboo thicket, and addresses topics such as the beginnings of Kasai’s involvement with dance and his upbringing in the bamboo thicket’s vicinity. In Kasai’s words, the dance practice is described as follows: “I wake up in the morning and am struck by lightning. There is a crash in my head. That’s the start of the day. And then, I dance until the day’s end.” “Once the thunderbolt enters me with an electrical crash, I need not do anything else to dance. I know what I am doing at each moment. […] it has fifty percent possession over me insofar as my dancing. The other fifty percent is me observing myself. […] It is like a mystical occurrence. Not just observing the dance itself. Observing everything around… to regard is to dance, too.” At the start of the video, Kasai is seen as he directs his focus intensely on a wild plant and dances spontaneously. Children from the neighborhood are seen attracted to Kasai in the video. Kasai’s thinking on dance, as well as VIC’s intent to record events as a matter of fact, without overly dramatizing, along with their attention to capturing a continuity with everyday life and spaces, can be prominently felt throughout the film.
クラッシック・バレエと舞踏という二つの出自を持つ笠井叡へのインタヴュー（I期にて《笠井叡 伝授の門 10/5》を紹介）。インタヴュアーは手塚一郎。民家の裏手にある竹藪の中で行われた。インタヴュー内では笠井の踊りを始めたきっかけや動機や竹藪周辺が笠井の育った土地だといった内容が語られる。笠井は踊りについて次のように語る。「朝、目が覚めるでしょ、パッと目が覚めて、上から雷がドシーンと落ちるわけだ。頭の中に、バーンと。それで一日が始まるわけだ。そして、そこからずっと、後は踊っているわけ、一日中。」「踊る時にね［…］雷がスパーっと自分の中に入ればもう、後は何もやらない。ただ、自分が何やってるかはわかりますよ、その時その時にはね。」「それ［雷］が自分に及ぼす力は50パーセントですよ、踊りの上で。あとの50パーセントは観察するね、自分を。［…］よくある、神秘体験ってやつですよそれは。」「踊りを見ているだけじゃなくて、周りのものを全部こうやって見るということがあるけど、これは踊りだもん。見ることも踊りなんですよ。」。冒頭には笠井が野草に注目したり突如として踊り出す様子や、途中で地元の子供たちが興味を持って近寄ってくる様子なども映っており、そこには踊りに対する笠井の意識とともに、日常的な空間との連続性を捉えながら演出を極力避け現実の出来事をあるがままに記録しようとするVICの姿勢を窺い知ることができる。
Part II-7. VIDEO INFORMATION CENTER Mochi pounding 1984.1.7［VIC0914］｜color｜24 min 28 sec｜VIC｜January 7, 1984｜B｜［Mochi pounding］（The VIC shop）
(Category A-4. Non-art)
The VIC at one point ran a video shop in Kichijōji, Tokyo, and there they also hosted a day of mochi-pounding festivities. Happi coats are seen worn in the spirit of the new years celebration. Hagama, a traditional brimmed rice cooking pot, is used to steam glutinous rice which is then placed in a usu, a cup shaped mortar, and pounded with kine, a long mallet, to make mochi. The mochi is cut into thin pieces and rounded to preferred sizes. Mochi making, as recorded here, is a two person job: one with a kine mallet and another to wet, and turn over, the mochi each time it is battered with the kine. It is steadily rhythmic, and especially because of the verbal cues exchanged between the two participants in the intervals of each strike of the kine, it becomes a form of performance. Mochi pounding often takes place as a ritual during new years, or seasonal and other various celebrations, including festivals and religious ceremonies. In the past, it represented an act of calling godly spirits into one’s body, and reviving the source of life within oneself. It is more common to use a wooden mortar usu to hold the mochi but here a stone usu is used. This video demonstrates VIC’s eye toward daily occurrences outside of the typical framework of art.
Video Information Centerのショップ前（VICは吉祥寺にてビデオ・ショップを運営していた。）で行われた新年の餅つき大会の記録。法被（はっぴ）を着て正月を祝っている。羽釜で糯米を蒸し、それを臼の中へ入れ杵で繰り返しつくことで餅をつくり、それを千切って丸めて好みに合わせて食べる。そのような餅つきの一連が記録されている。杵でつく役と水をつけて餅をかき混ぜる役に分かれた二人一組の掛け合いは、掛け声もあいまって、それ自体リズミカルであり、パフォーマンスとして見応えがある。餅つきの多くは、正月、節句、祝い事、祭や神事などの場で行われる。かつて、餅を儀礼食として食べるということは、神の霊力を体内に鎮め、生命力を再生・補強することだった。通常は木製の臼を用いるが、ここでは石臼を用いている。VICが芸術関連の記録だけでなく、一見些末な日常も記録していたことが分かる重要な記録の一つである。
Part II-8. CATV-PROGRAM R#5 1977/1/25,29,30 2/6,7 No.42-47 B3 84.2.15［VIC0301］｜black and white｜2 hr 36 min 19 sec｜Ichirо̄ Tezuka and others｜［January, 1977］｜B｜Cable Paravision Ten（Sawano-sō）(Category B. Experimentation in cable television：Cable Paravision Ten)
Between the years 1977 and 1978, VIC had a stint with what they called “the world’s smallest” cable television, based out of an apartment within a ten-unit apartment complex called Sawano-sō (Sawano apartment), in Mitaka, Tokyo. They called the program Cable Paravision Ten. One of the ten rooms was used as a studio while the other nine were connected with cables to receive the television programs. Most days it was aired from 11:30 PM for thirty minutes, but some days, depending on the program, it could run for over an hour. In this particular episode, a live-stream interview takes place, in which residents are asked to review movies now in theaters, followed by the airing of a visit to Minami garо̄ (Minami gallery) to see an ongoing show by Katsuhiro Yamaguchi. The set, mainly based around events occurring in the apartment-studio, runs for over two hours in total. Also included is a film clip of the commute from the Sawano apartment to ICU (International Christian University), probably filmed specifically for the program, and interviews conducted on ICU's campus.
10室からなる東京都三鷹市のアパートメント・沢野荘の1室をスタジオとし、他の9室とケーブルでつなぎ世界最小規模のCATVの実験として「Cable Paravision Ten」という番組の放送を1977年から1978年にかけて行った。基本的には午後11時から30分間の放送だったが、番組の内容によっては1時間を超えるものもある。この番組内では、生放送による住人へのインタヴューを行い、上映中の映画についての感想を述べ、南画廊で開催された山口勝弘の個展へ訪れる様子を撮影したテープを流すなど、2時間以上にわたりスタジオを拠点として多様な出来事が起こっている。テープには、番組内で放映するために撮影されたと思われる沢野荘からICU（国際基督教大学）への通学路の様子および構内における取材の模様も記録されている。
Part II-9. 1981 8/30 Parco VIDEO STATION［VIC0806］｜color｜18 min 22 sec｜VIC｜August 30, 1981｜B｜Rock’n Roll Video（the Parco department store in Kichijōji, Tokyo) (Category C-1. Video Workshop)
This video features the exterior and surroundings of the Parco department store in Kichijōji, giving a taste and feel of the quotidian atmosphere of the early 1980s. Featured here is a free event entitled Rock’n Roll Video, in which a compilation of approximately fifty live performances by various rock bands, filmed over the course of two months, were streamed for a live audience. Two television monitors filming the stage alternate with clips of the audience. A still photograph of the television monitors can be seen presented on a pasteboard. According to an interview with Ichirо̄ Tezuka in 2017. “We used only one camera; and always filmed an interview.”
吉祥寺PARCOの外観とその周辺の町並みが映し出され、80年代初頭の風俗を伝えている。2ヶ月間をかけて記録した約50のバンドのライブ・ビデオを公開する無料イベント「Rock’n Roll Video」が行われている。バンドを映し出す二台のテレビ・モニターと観客を交互に記録している。ビデオ・モニターを写真機で撮った写真がクリップボードに貼り付けられている。「ワン・カメラで撮影。必ずインタビューを撮っていた。」（2017年に行われた手塚一郎へのインタビューによる）。
Translated by Miyuki Hinton
Community of Images: Japanese Moving Image Artists in the US, 1960s - 1970s
Community of Images: Japanese Moving Image Artists in the US, 1960s-1970s will be an exhibition of experimental moving images created by Japanese artists in the U.S. during the 1960s and 70s, an area that has fallen in the fissure between American and Japanese archival priorities. Following JASGP's Re:imagining Recovery Project and its mission to support and engage diverse audiences through Japanese arts and culture in collaboration with local organizations, this project aims to discover, preserve, and present film and video works and performance footage by Japanese filmmakers and artists to the wider public.
We have partnered with the University of the Arts, and will present this exhibition at the Philadelphia Arts Alliance in June - August 2024.
The project and its online programming is generously supported by the Pew Center for Arts and Heritage & the Andy Warhol Foundation, the Toshiba International Foundation and the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts’ Preserving Diverse Cultures grant.
Hitoshi Kubo 久保仁志
A man who was born in Tokyo, 1977 and now lives in Kanagawa. An archivist at Keio University Art Center, among other activities. Departing from certain archives or specific referential materials and montaging various spatiotemporal perspectives that they encompass, many of his projects shed light on not only events that occurred but also those that could have occurred, fundamentally as a way for him to explore possibilities to redesign conditions of human experiences as variable circuits by means of observation, analysis, and construction of montages employed in films and other artistic works, driven by his trust to the world, which in his eyes essentially stands as a process of self-generation and flickering. Recent writings include Montaging Penumbra: on a Motif of Archive (report for JSPS Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research 26580029 | 2017) and “A Case of a Studio: Shuzo Takiguchi and a Laboratory,” NACT Review, no. 5 (2018 | National Art Center Tokyo). At Keio University Art Center, he has directed a project to reconsider archives, called Pleating Machine (2018–).
1977年に東京で生まれ現在神奈川で暮らす。慶應義塾大学アート・センター・アーキヴィスト他。プロジェクトの多くはあるアーカイヴおよび具体的諸資料から出発し、それらが包含する様々な時空間的パースペクティヴを編集（モンタージュ）することで起こった出来事だけでなく起こりえた出来事を照射してみせるのだが、その根底にあるのは映画をはじめとした芸術作品における編集の観察・分析・構築を通して人間の経験の諸条件を可変的回路として設計し直す可能性の探求であり生成明滅しつつも過程としてあるこの世界への信にほ
かならない。近著に『〈半影〉のモンタージュ：アーカイヴの一つのモチーフについて』（「JSPS 科研費 26580029」レポート｜2017年）、「ある書斎の事件記録——瀧口修造と実験室について」『NACT Review 国立新美術館研究紀要』5号（2018｜国立新美術館）慶應義塾大学アート・センターにてアーカイヴを考えるための企画『プリーツ・マシーン』（2018-）を行っている。
