On body memory

Films by Nao Yoshigai, Nao Usami and Kaori Oda

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They say the body remembers what the mind forgets. Exploring the limits of bodily expression from digital animation to dance film, this programme proposes that the body carries history and transforms this weight into gestures.

Dancer and choreographer Nao Yoshigai features twice in the programme: as director in ‘Hottamaru days’ and as speechless spirit in ‘Gama’.

Offering a glimpse into the exhilarating world of Japanese artists’ moving image, ‘Engawa films’ seeks to stake a place for its existence in Japanese contemporary art and cinema.

Duration: 120 min.


'Hottomaru days', by Nao Yoshigai

Japan, 2015, 38’ 
In Japanese subtitled in Portuguese

A fantastical and beautiful visual poem about joyful spirits who reside in a house.

There is a wooden one-story house. In this tiny house, four dancer nymphs are living besides Satoko (Singer), a human being. They are absorbed in Satoko’s music and having a comfortable life. But one day, dancer nymphs found by chance that another little girl was living in the house. 

‘Hottamaru’ is a coined word that is made of two Japanese words ‘Hotteoku’(leaving something as it is) and ‘Tamaru’(accumulating). It means things that accumulate if we leave something as it is. Fallen things from human body such as hair, nails, skins of the sole of their feet. Or various smells that accumulate in everyday life. 

Credits

Cast 

Shibata Satoko
Orita Risa
Kogure Kaho 

Director and screenplay

Yoshigai Nao 

Music

Shibata Satoko 

Sound 

Masaya Kitada 


'I stitch my skin to the ground', by Nao Usami

2023
Japão, 23’
No dialogues

This work is composed of two video games, ‘Ambiguous Lucy’(2021) and ‘Replay over and over’ (2023) and captured as video (game-play). The story is based on accounts of people who have experienced sexual violence in the past that turned their bodies into ‘objects’. They feel the touched skins are dirty and try to remove it. They embark on journeys to look for new bodies, and at once also to connect with others, such as machines, plants or stones.

Credits

Directed, animated and programmed

Nao Usami

Music

Chiho Oka

Voice

Manae Shimizu
Nao Usami


'Gama', by Kaori Oda

2023
Japan, 53’
In Japanese with Portuguese subtitles

In Okinawa, where intense ground fighting took place at the end of World War II, there are many natural caves called "GAMA". Mitsuo Matsunaga, a peace guide and collector of remains from the Battle of Okinawa, describes how civilians involved in the war sheltered in GAMA. As the fighting on the ground intensified, mass deaths occurred in some GAMA, and in others people tried to communicate with U.S. soldiers, and many lives were saved. The experiences of those who spent their time breathing underground are relieved through "Darkness Experiences" woven into the narratives. The blue dressed "Shadow" roams by. The remains of those who died unknown appear before us living today. Traces of time and human activity layered on GAMA shaped by the passage of time were captured on 16mm film.

Credits

Director, editing and sound design

Oda Kaori

Photography

Takano Yoshiko

Sound, technical direction and DI colorist

Nagasaki Hayato

Lighting

Hiraya Risa

Assistant director, assistant camera and researcher

Torii Yuto

Production coordinator

Oda Eriko

Producers

Tsutsui Ryohei
Sugihara Eijun

Appearances

Matsunaga Mitsuo
Yoshigai Nao

Engawa – A Season of Contemporary Art from Japan

‘Engawa’ is a programming that brings to Lisbon a set of creators from Japan and the Japanese diaspora, many of them for the first time in Portugal. More info


Biographies

Partnership

Collaboration

The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation reserves the right to collect and keep records of images, sounds and voice for the diffusion and preservation of the memory of its cultural and artistic activity. For further information, please contact us through the Information Request form.

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