Kenta Yamazaki | Bird Park Reading Performance "She Who Swims is Looking at the Horizon"
Bird Park's Kaori Nishio's reading performance, "She Who Swims is Looking at the Horizon," sharply questions past tragedies and modern exploitation structures from the perspective of the 'karayuki-san' women.Summary
The reading performance "She Who Swims is Looking at the Horizon," created and directed by Kaori Nishio of Bird Park, is a staged reading of a play based on the theme of 'karayuki-san' – women who worked in the sex industry in Southeast Asia and elsewhere from the late 19th to early 20th centuries. The story unfolds from the perspective of these women, set primarily in Singapore in 1915 and Kuala Lumpur in 1942. This work is the first fictional piece Nishio has written as part of the 'karayuki-san project,' and it carries ethical questions about the act of writing. In the performance, Wakako Wada and Miho Inajiki play multiple roles, and the repetition of exploitation is brought to light as the past and present intersect. The inclusion of a theater rehearsal scene suggests that the very act of performing contains a structure of 'mistake.' The venue, the eight-ban hall in Yokohama's Golden Gai, is a former red-light district, adding historical weight to the work. This work is a thought-provoking piece that confronts past tragedies and raises issues of exploitation in modern society.
(Source：artscape)