Move on Asia 2006 “Conflict and Networking”

Eight televisions and one large screen, each showing various selections of 5-30 minute videos on loop, have been installed in the Tokyo Wonder Site gallery in Shibuya. Visitors can freely grab a seat and headphones in front of their screen of choice and either wait for the beginning of the next video, or try to watch one from the middle.

Video art tends to be rather abstract. Couple this with the fact that most of these videos are in languages other than Japanese/English, and that some include complex narrative and political/social/existential discussions. Needless to say, the experience left me a little disoriented.

I found that direct, humorous videos that have immediate impact – such as the image of a man wearing boxing gloves eating spaghetti in Takayuki Hino’s “Boxing Man”, or the Chinese propaganda-ish animations of Andry Mohamad’s hilarious “Just Do It” – were more effective, and stood out among the room full of TV screens. I left with the impression that a proper screening of the films from start to finish in a cinema, or a projection room in a gallery perhaps, would have been a more desirable setting for these works than randomly watching 2, 3 minutes of a video and switching to the next screen, as I was prone to do here. A little unfortunate, as the content is definitely interesting and worth checking out if you’re into short videos.

While you’re at it, I recommend checking out Hitoshi Nishiyama’s “White Out” installation (free) across the hall.