Kikai de Mirukoto / the Pioneers of Japanese Videoart 

Art documentary on the early days of video art in Japan
Thurs, August 17, 7:30 pm

VCT/ VIDEOART CENTER Tokyo presents a documentary video “KIKAI DE MIRUKOTO- the Pioneers of Japanese Video Arts”, with oral history and video pieces of early video artists in Japan.

VIDEO became to be a medium that inspired us to discover the world…

In the late 1960s, between Tokyo Olympic in 1964 and Osaka Expo in 1970, portable video equipment became available on the market, giving people an opportunity to shoot moving images and replay them immediately.

The documentary includes interviews with artists Katsuhiro YAMAGUCHI, Toshio MATSUMOTO, Fujiko NAKAYA, Takahiko IIMURA, Hakudo KOBAYASHI, Keigo YAMAMOTO, Ko NAKAJIMA, Nobuhiro KAWANAKA, Mako IDEMITSU, Sakumi HAGIWARA, Kohei ANDO, Canadian artist Michael GOLDBERG, MoMA curator Barbara LONDON and Nam June PAIK’s life partner, Shigeko KUBOTA, and his engineer, Shuya ABE. Including a range of excerpts of selected video art pieces, this documentary reflects on the meaning of “VIDEO” which originally had meant “I see” in Latin. We present the roots of media art from the islands that gave birth to Sony and Panasonic!

HDV, 80min, 2012, Region free/ALL

Director: Kentaro TAKI, camera:Naoya OOE

Supported by The Japan World Exposition 1970 Commemorative Fund

For more information: http://kikai-de-mirukoto.vctokyo.org/

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