The work, commissioned to Yasuhiro Morinaga (b. 1980) for CAM’s Engawa – A Season of Contemporary Art from Japan, juxtaposes a recitation based on a Portuguese missionary report in the 16th century, a chant of the ‘Kakure-Kirishitan’s Oratio’ from the Nagasaki Prefecture, a singing of the Karawara spirits of the indigenous Awá people living in the Amazon rainforest, and a chorus of Western Gregorian chant.

While confronting the physical act of ‘waiting’ and mental act of ‘inconsitancy’, Morinaga constructs narratives through recitation and addressing auditory culture of the Japanese, the Amazon indigenous peoples, and the Portuguese, a sonic tornado takes form and undulates through time and space with Mother Earth.

Yasuhiro Morinaga is a sound artist and sound designer based in Lisbon, who has developed an interest in conducting ethnographic fieldwork intersecting sound/music and anthropology. As an artist, he has created media installations and theatrical performances featuring an auditory culture, encompassing listeners and encouraging them to experience and gain awareness of the sounds that tend to be unnoticed.

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