"Cinema & Situations: Japanese Experimental Films" New York City, Nov. 21, 2004

"Cinema & Situations:

Japanese Experimental Film Night"

Film Works of Motoharu Jonouchi and
Yoshihiro Kato (Zero Dimension)

November 21st, at 8:00 PM

TONIC, 107 Norfolk Street, New York, NY 10002

212·358·7501

Admission $7

PROGRAM A: Films by Motoharu Jonouchi

“Hi Red Center Shelter Plan” 1964

“WOLS” 1965

“The Mass Collective Bargaining At Nihon University” 1968

“Gewaltopia Trailer” 1968

PROGRAM B: A Film by Yoshihiro Kato (Zero Dimension)

“The White Hare of Inaba” 1970 (2004 version)

Information about the directors is available below.— About the Directors:

Motoharu Jonouchi

Born in 1935, in Ibaragi Prefecture. Jonouchi entered the Art Department of Nihon University; in 1957, along with his colleague Katsumi Hirano, he co-founded the Film Study Group in the Fine Art Department of Nihon University. He co-directed “The Record of N [N no Kiroku]” (59), the second production by the collective, documenting the disaster of the Ise Bay Typhoon.

“Pou Pou” (60) is a chain of amorphously expanding phantasmagoric images, with insertions of the images taken from film classics. During the same period, looking ahead to the future after graduation, he co-founded the VAN Institute for Cinematic Science as a forum for film production, and began living communally with five members including Masao Adachi.

In correspondence with the anti-art movement of the time, VAN Institute assumed a place for artists working in various media to gather together. A documentary of the Anti-Japan-US Security Treaty struggle of 1960, “Document 6.15” (61), was screened at the memorial assembly for Michiko Kanba, who was killed at the demonstration in front of the Diet Building. It was a pioneering experiment of ‘intermedia’ in Japan which showed symbolic close-up images of Kanbara along with the scenes re-enacting police brutality, meanwhile two completely different soundtracks were played together, slide projections of paintings were going on, and a live happening was taking place at the venue.

Jonouchi subsequently produced “Document LSD” (62), documenting a public LSD experiment using himself as the object; “Hi Red Center Shelter Plan” (64), that was about an art event at the Imperial Hotel; “WOLS”(65), consisting of fragments of a painting by WOLS, which were put together through in-camera editing; “Hijikata Tatsumi,” which shot the stage of Tatsumi Hijikata frame by frame.

Towards the 70’s Anti-Japan-US Security Treaty Struggle, he continued to document the student uprising, while successively producing the “Gewaltopia series” including “Hakusan Street by Nihon University [Nichidai Hakusan-dori]”(68), “The Mass Collective Bargaining at Nihon University” (68), “Gewaltopia Trailer” (69), and “Shinjuku Station” (74).

By including live performances which created improvised sounds and editing the films differently for each screening, and thus negating the idea of film as being complete, repeatable, and consumable
— Jonouchi pursued ‘cinematic revolution.’

Yoshihiro Kato

Born in 1936, Nagoya. With Shinichi Iwata, he co-founded the avant-garde artistic group “Zero Jigen [Zero Dimension] ”; after moving to Tokyo, they did the street performances called, “Ceremonies” in Ginza, Shinjuku, and Shibuya. Their numerous acts of ‘artistic terrorism’ where a group of naked men with kitschy costumes and props suddenly appeared on the street and proceeded therein cannot be categorized into a conventional notion of ‘work’; Zero Jigen did collaborations with artists of various media, and culminated as The Joint Struggle Faction for Crashing Expo ’70 [Banpakuhakai Kyoto-ha].

“The White Hare of Inaba”(70) is a document of the struggles of Zero Jigen, which persisted in one-time-ness of expression during the time of high economic growth when artistic expression came to be easily commodified and consumed.