Masayuki Kawai | Japan

YAMATO-TAKERU

video installation : DVD, projector, conceptual presentation

May 2005 60 minutes 11 chapters

The concept was perceived and the filming in Jerusalem was made during Masayuki Kawai's JCVA (Jerusalem Center for Visual Arts) residency (November 2004) in Israel.

This piece is a part of an expected trilogy work “Kojiki”, an experimental video story on the spirit and consciousness in the present. The story's background is the earliest Japanese literature, "Kojiki" (The Book of Ancient Matters), written in the 8th century. The Kojiki describes, in mythic/epic form, the complicated stories of the gods and heroes, detailing a process from the beginning of the world to the establishment of the ancient state. In this piece, a heroic story of prince Yamato-takeru is referred to.

All the images are shot in Israel. This piece represents an odyssey of a sight-consciousness of video/audience, revealing meanings of the landscape and the sacred. Thus it presents a conceptual mixture of history, revelation, religion and human existence, crossing over cultures.

On the wall, there exhibit schema of its concepts. On the left wall, each scene's central concept from the scenario is shown, while on the right wall, its counterpart in the phrase of the Kojiki's mythic story is shown.