山城は、これまで沖縄戦の記録と記憶の継承に始まり、在沖米軍基地によって引き起こされる沖縄が抱えてきた複雑な状況と向き合い制作を続けてきた作家です。現実とフィクションの狭間で高度な比喩によって映像化された作品は、鑑賞者に様々な解釈を呼び起こしてきました。

本展にて上映展示される『創造の発端 ―アブダクション/子供―』は、ダム・タイプの元メンバーでダンサーの川口隆夫が、舞踏家の故・大野一雄の伝説的な舞台を「再現」するプロセスに山城が密着取材した映像作品です。
川口が他者(大野)を自らの身体に取り込もうとする行為の記録は、ただのドキュメンタリーでは終わらず、得体の知れない剥き出しの身体となって観者の前に立ち現れます。沖縄を通じて「他者との接触、その継承」を一貫したテーマの一つとして制作してきた山城だからこそ撮影できた濃密な空間を、この機会に是非ともご高覧ください。

本展では、『創造の発端 ―アブダクション/子供―』の上映展示を中心に、その補助的な意味合いを持つ映像作品、また本編のスチル写真作品も展示致します。

■作家ステートメント
　「肉屋の女」という作品を作り始める前、私は久米島の親類が営んでいる養鶏場を訪ねた。卵から孵った雛が食卓に上がる鶏肉になるまでの工程をすべて見れる大きな養鶏場で、なかには卵を産むために残され食肉にならずにすんだ幸運な鶏、産卵期を終え食肉になるには遅すぎる歳老いた鶏たちもいた。老いた鶏には鶏専用の餌ではなく、代わりに山盛りのゴーヤーが与えられていた。絵としては異様で滑稽で面白くて、思わず吹き出してカメラを回していた。
　生きている鶏がスーパーに並んでいるような見慣れた肉になるまでを撮る必要があった。すべての工程を丁寧に追いかけたが結局、9割くらいの素材が採用されなかった。それでも本編の物語が立ち上がるきっかけとして、じっくり見て撮影したいという欲求は十分に満たされた。ひんやりと、ぷるんとした、柔らかくて、皮膚をめくったら出てくるあの肉の塊を、私のからだの感触としてとらえておきたかった。
　女の子が海の底からやってきた肉の塊と浜辺で遭遇するシーンがある。編集で繋いでいるとき、次のカットはあの雛の大群が来る、と無性に思った。しっとりと濡れた肉が密やかに浜辺の草むらに隠れている様子は、まるで子牛か子ヤギがこの世に産まれ落ちてまだ間もないときのようだ。足腰がガクガクして力のいれ方がわからずまだまだ立ち上がれないときのように危うい、この世に辿りついた肉。その次のカットが、薄暗がりの養鶏場を埋め尽くす雛の大群。
　物語が始まった、と思った。物語の構築に確信をもたらしたのは図らずもこの鳥のカットだった。
「創造の発端 -アブダクション／子供-」でも、何かが生まれいづる瞬間に鳥がいる。川口隆夫がデッサンをしている。動画をキャプチャした静止画を丁寧に描いてはコマを進め、スケッチブックをめくっては動画の静止画を描いている。途方もない繰り返しに見えるが、一コマ一コマが丁寧にゆっくりと進んでいる。そのうち川口が立ち上がり、からだが静止画のコマを繋ぎ、動きを探し始める。からだが膨らみ萎む呼吸音、床と足裏がぶつかり擦れる音、鉛筆の引っ掻き音の間のスケッチブックをめくる音がふいに鳥の羽ばたきに聴こえた。
　「あ、鳥だ。生まれた。」
理由はわからないが、二作品に渡って鳥は創造に何らかの関わりを持っているのだと感じられた。空を見上げる川口隆夫が、濡れて震えるからだを広げて羽ばたきの動きを真似る雛のように見える。

2016.8.23　
山城知佳子

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Chikako Yamashiro has continued working up to now, inheriting records and memories of the Okinawa Battle as well as facing with the complex circumstances Okinawa has had such as environmental disruption caused by the US military base and a violation of woman's rights. Her works do not show messages explicitly. But, using a high-level metaphor, they were produced as videos in a gap between reality and fiction. Then, they have inspired viewers to make various interpretations.

In The Beginning of Creation: Abduction/A Child presented in the exhibition, Yamashiro closely covered a process of Takao Kawaguchi, the dancer and former Dumb Type member , who "reenacts" the legendary stage by the late butoh performer Mr. Kazuo Ohno. The record of Kawaguchi's performance to take another person (Ohno) into his own body does not remain just as a documentary, but is shown with a mysterious bared body in front of the viewers. The intense space will be presented, which only Yamashiro could shoot, who has kept working with a consistent theme, "to contact with other people and to inherit it" through Okinawa.

This exhibition will screen The Beginning of Creation: Abduction/A Child as a main feature. Also, the other video meant to be supplementary and those stills from The Beginning of Creation: Abduction/A Child will be shown.

■ Artist Statement
Before I started working on The Butcher Woman, I visited a poultry farm run by my relatives in Kumejima Island. It was a big farm one can see from the time chicks hatch from eggs till they are processed as meat served at a table. There were some lucky chickens which were kept to lay eggs so that they did not to have to be eaten as meat, and other old chickens were too late for meat processing, having finished the egg-laying season. Those old chickens were not fed with special ones for them, but a heap of bitter gourds. It was unusual, funny and interesting as an image. Bursting out laughing in spite of myself, I was rolling the camera.

I needed to shoot a process where a living chicken turns to meat usually seen in a supermarket. Although I took my time to pursue every process, 90% of the resource I shot could not be used as a result. However, I was fully satisfied as I had a desire to look at the chickens carefully and shoot them as a lead to start the main story. I wanted to capture the lump of chicken as the feel of my body, which is cool, jellylike, and soft, and will come out when the skin is ripped off.

There is a scene a little girl saw the lump of meat by accident at the beach, which came from the bottom of the sea. When I was putting the scenes together for editing, I had an irresistible thought that the next shot must be the hordes of chicks. The lump of wet and moist meat secretly hiding in the grass of the sands reminds me of a calf or a lamb recently born in the world. The meat has managed to arrive at this world; it is unsteady as its legs are too weak to stand or walk. Then there were the hordes of chicks in the next shot, cramming the dim light of the poultry farm.

The story has just started, I thought. This scene convinced me the whole story will be constructed.

Also in The Beginning of Creation: Abduction/ A Child, a bird is perceived at the moment something is coming into the world. Takao Kawaguchi is making a sketch. Drawing minutely a still picture captured from the video, he lets the scene go forward, and turning the page of the sketch book, he still keeps drawing. It seems an extraordinary repetition but each scene moves on carefully and slowly. Meanwhile, he stands up. His body starts looking for the movement in the still picture, connecting the scenes. His breathing makes his body swell and shrink, and the sound by the sole of his foot rubs the floor. Then the sound of turning pages of a sketch book combines with the scratching sound with a pencil. I could hear unexpectedly all of these sounds like a bird flapping the wings.

“Ah, it’s a bird. Just born.”

I do not know why, but I felt that a bird has something to do with creation of the above two works. Takao Kawaguchi, who looks up the sky, seems a chic opening its wet and trembling body and imitating flapping of the wings.

Chikako Yamashiro
August 23, 2016

プレスリリース（和）
Press Release (EN)