Revisiting Butoh: connecting / cutting memoriesExhibition

Now many artists are interested in Butoh, Japanese avangarde dance begun in 1959, and they make diverse dance works, being inspired by it all over the world. Their approaches to Butoh are very diverse: copying the choreographies by Hijikata Tatsumi and Ohno Kazuo, founders of Butoh, philosophical interpretation about their specific idea on the “dead body standing”, “vulnerable body”, tributing homage to Ohno wiht memories experienced in his workshop, making lecture-performance based on interviewing with the successors of butoh, and so on.
In this exhibition, we juxtapose new works made by different approaches above mentioned and original butoh danced by Hijikata Tatsumi and Ohno Kazuo.
And the artists introduced in this exhibition will show us diverse tentatives to connect / cut memories of butoh, which is becoming our historical legacy. What does it mean that critical body images reemerge from butoh, evoking both anxiety and ecstacy in our age?
And why butoh can transcend borders and continue to give a shock internationally?
We hope that this exhibition will be an opportunity to revisit Butoh and to consider its actuality.