The Magic Piper of Ishinomaki
Video loop, color, sound6’32’’
2013
With the support of Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture, Tokyo Wonder Site (Japan) and financed with a grant provided by Project DE. / MO. MOVIN’UP.
The short film The Magic Piper of Ishinomaki was made possible thanks to the precious help of Sekine Kanji (music and performance), Luigi Lupo (music editing) and Emanuele Basso (video editing)
EN
The video The Magic Piper of Ishinomaki was filmed in Ishinomaki, a coastal town located in the Tōhoku region about 100 km from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, two years after the tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster.
The video The Magic Piper of Ishinomaki was filmed in Ishinomaki, a coastal town located in the Tōhoku region about 100 km from the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, two years after the tsunami and subsequent nuclear disaster.
The work develops around a performance inspired by the fairy tale/legend of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. One of the possible interpretations of the fairy tale sees the figure of the Pied Piper as a metaphor of the death that struck numerous children in the town of Hamelin, Germany in the 13th century, due to an epidemic of Black Death. The interpretation sees the melody diffused by the piper as a metaphor for the pestilence which, like radioactivity, is invisible, is transmitted by air and affects mostly children, the first to be evacuated following the radioactive dispersion from Fukushima. The performer is filmed walking among the ruins and improvising a melody, passing through deserted areas devastated by the catastrophe. As in a ritual, along the way the performer stops in front of public buildings, houses and monuments.
IT
Il video The Magic Piper of Ishinomaki é stato realizzato ad Ishinomaki, una città costiera situata nella regione del Tōhoku a circa 100 km dalla centrale nucleare di Fukushima Dai-ichi, due anni dopo lo tsunami e il conseguente disastro nucleare.
Il lavoro si sviluppa attorno ad un’azione eseguita da un performer ed ispirata alla fiaba/leggenda del Pifferaio Magico di Hamelin.
Una delle maggiori interpretazioni della fiaba vedono la figura del pifferaio come metafora della morte che colpì numerosi bambini nella città di Hamelin, in Germania nel XIII secolo, a causa di un'epidemia di peste.
L'interpretazione vede dunque la melodia diffusa dal pifferaio come metafora della peste la quale, come la radioattività, é invisibile, si trasmette via aerea e colpisce maggiormente i bambini, i primi ad essere evacuati in seguito alla dispersione radioattiva proveniente da Fukushima.
Il performer viene filmato mentre cammina tra le rovine e improvvisa una melodia, passando attraverso aree deserte e devastate dalla catastrofe. Come in un rituale, lungo il percorso il performer si ferma davanti a edifici pubblici, case e monumenti.
The Pied Piper of Hamelin
Position of Ishinomaki and epicentre of Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, Japan, 2011
Magnitude 9 on the richter scale
Before and after the tsunami
Research material and some photographs taken in Ishinomaki in 2013
Ryts Monet, THE MAGIC PIPER OF ISHINOMAKI, 2013
Ryts Monet, THE MAGIC PIPER OF ISHINOMAKI, stillS from video, 2014
Exhibition view at Sisters, solo show at Gallery COEXIST-TOKYO, Japan, 2014