Eating Tour For Freedom #1

Performance, single channel video, 2023

This video work was created during Yamaguchi’s residency at Shin-Yurakucho Sonoaida, awarded as part of the A-TOM ART AWARD 2022 Sonoaida Prize. Yamaguchi performed an act of infiltration into buildings that were once requisitioned and off-limits to Japanese citizens (including the Dai-ichi Life Building, Tokyo Kaikan, and Meiji Yasuda Life Building Annex, which served as GHQ headquarters), while eating American food. The food items chosen were those familiar to Yamaguchi from his time studying in the United States. The chewing sounds, captured by a voice recorder concealed on his chest, reverberate loudly throughout the video, evoking images of exploitation. However, simultaneously, Yamaguchi physically embodies the changing circumstances – spaces once inaccessible to Japanese people can now be freely entered, with the liberty to eat there, albeit impolitely.

「A-TOM ART AWARD 2022」ソノアイダ賞の副賞として、新有楽町ソノアイダでのレジデンス期間中に制作した映像作品。山口は、かつて”接収”され日本人の立ち入りが制限されていた建造物(GHQの拠点であった第一生命ビル、東京會舘、明治安田生命ビル別館)に、アメリカンフードを”摂取”しながら潜入するパフォーマンスを行った。口にされた食べ物は、山口自身のアメリカ留学時代に親しんだものである。胸に仕込まれたボイスレコーダーが捉えた咀嚼音は映像内で大音量で響き渡り、搾取的なイメージを喚起させる。しかし同時に、かつては日本人の立ち入りが叶わなかった空間で、現在は自由に—しかも行儀悪く—食べ歩きができるという状況の変化を身体で表現している。

Eating Tour For Freedom#1
Performance, single channel video, installation
ON LIMITS / Shinyurakucho#Sonoaida, Tokyo, Japan

-Appearance-

Feb 24, 2023 – Feb 26, 2023
ON LIMITS
Shinyurakucho#Sonoaida, Tokyo, Japan

Oct 20, 2023 – Oct 29, 2023
Itsumono Sono aida
Shinyurakucho#Sonoaida, Tokyo, Japan