Takuya Takemoto - Performance and Workshop

Standing, Walking, Seeing

With Tokyo-based performance artist Takuya Takemoto

15 November 2024 10am – 4pm

Performance videos

Chapter 1

https://media.salford.ac.uk/Play/59290

Chapter 2

https://media.salford.ac.uk/Play/59291

Chapter 3

https://media.salford.ac.uk/Play/59292

Chapter 4

https://media.salford.ac.uk/Play/59293

10:00am – 1pm Workshop

Q&A 1

https://media.salford.ac.uk/Play/59294

Chapter 6

Q&A 2

https://media.salford.ac.uk/Play/59295

Takuya Takemoto: Presence and Perception

In this workshop Tokyo-based live artist, dancer and choreographer Takuya Takemoto breaks down his method based on themes such as ‘landscape’ and ‘perception’?" The workshop will focus on the landscape of mountainous region of Gunma Prefecture, where Takemoto spent his childhood and participants’ own experiences of nature and landscape. Through breathing and movement exercises, we will consider the impact of landscape and geographical conditions on the perception and physical sensations in performance.

2:30 – 4:00pm Performance + 30-min Q&A

Takemoto Takuya: See a Porous Stone

"What does it mean to have a person in front of you? How do we 'see' the space in front of us?

Stand quietly, listen carefully to the sounds and air around you, and sense the fluctuations between light and shadow. Based on the theme of "What does it mean for a person to stand in front of a person in performance?" performance artist, dancer and choreographer Takuya Takemoto reconstructs the relationship between the body and the environment and transform the viewer's perception of space through extremely subtle movements.

Takuya Takemoto was born in mountainous region in Gunma Prefecture. Since 2017, he has been performing this performance every day with or without audience in community centres in Tokyo.

The daily performance of 'being there' changes constantly beyond artistic intention and continues to awaken our perception and behaviour. This performance is an extension of this daily activity, but also a new attempt at something unique in the place where it is performed.

Moving from New York to Lancaster, UK to Salford and then to Düsseldorf and Hamburg in Germany, this performance is to be experienced by the whole body.

ABOUT TAKUYA TAKEMOTO

Takuya Takemoto was born in mountainous region in Gunma Prefecture. In 2017, he started performing every day with or without audience in community centres in Tokyo. He studied performance art and theatre at Musashino Arts University and in his late 20s studied with famous actionist Kubikukuri (also known as ‘The Hangman’). Solo performances to date include I saw a newt (2022) at Tooyoka International Theatre Festival, came to see mountains (2021) at Dance New Air. In addition to his own performances, he has appeared as an actor and dancer in works by Aya Momose, most recently at Theater der Welt 2023 in Germany, Akumanoshirushi, Yasunori Ikunishi and Megumi Kamimura. Parallel to his artistic activities, he also works as a project manager for an IT company. He is 2023-24 Saison Fellow 1. https://takuyatakemoto.com

Thanks to generous support by Arts and Humanities Research Council through North-West Doctoral Training Partnership, The Saison Foundation, Arts Council Tokyo (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture) and The Japan Foundation.

This project is organised by University of Salford and Lancaster Institute for the Contemporary Arts (LICA) Cultures Research Centre