Art, Spirit, Community
Artist-in-Residency 2019-2020

Art, Spirit, Community
Artist-in-Residency 2019-2020
Arts Initiative Tokyo – Bethel House – Times Museum
January 14th – February 29th, 2020

To see a full publication originally written both in Japanese and Chinese withphotos and illustration, please follow the QR code below.

Arts Initiative Tokyo [AIT]
otoiawase@a-i-t.net
www.a-i-t.net

1Art, Spirit, Community
Artist-in-Residency 2019-2020

Foreword
In early 2020, Arts Initiative Tokyo [AIT] has collaborated with Guangdong Times
Museum in China and Bethel House in Hokkaido for the Artist-in-Residency program totake multiple angles to examine a relationship between art, spirit, and community.
The open call took place in and out of Guangzhou, and attracted more than fifty artists(includinggroups).

The

collaborating

partners

and

AIT

have

selectedan

Guangzhou-based artist/dancer, ErGao to invite. During his 42-day residency, hestayed in Tokyo from January 26th to February 6th, followed by his time with members
and social workers at Bethel House in Urakawa, Hokkaido, the respected community ofthe people with mental disabilities.

Inspired by “Self-Study Meeting”, the acknowledged practice of Bethel House which
opens up one’s difficulties being experienced in life to share with others and take aself-research, the artist-in-residency created a deep communication and interaction
through ErGao’s daily exercises and workshops. They based on various old songs andmusic pieces in addition to the most asked questions at the Bethel House “How are you
doing?”. The various members and the staff, even from the neighborhood ErGao has
met during his stay joined the final workshop. Back in Tokyo and Chiba, the activities
continued with more workshops that children and adults collaboratively created theirdance movements inspired by their personal memories over a sense of physicality.

“Art, Spirit, Community” documents ErGao’s residency from various locations along witharticles contributed by the writers he also has encountered, and how the program
unfolded.

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Artist-in-Residency 2019-2020

Artist Profile
ErGao
Lives and works in Guangzhou, China

ErGao is a multi-media dancer/choreographer whose work uses dance, film, installationand other creative strategies. After graduating from Guangdong Cantonese Opera
school in 2001, he studied in adult college class of joint college of Sun Yat-sen
University and Guang Dong Dance College in 2002, majoring in contemporary dance. In
2006, he graduated from APA, Hong Kong with full scholarship.
ErGao founded ErGao Dance Production Group (EDPG) in 2007 in Guangzhou, with afocus on dance theatre, dance film, community art and dance education. His
productions continuously see the body as the primary medium of work and the site ofartistic investigation, using diverse strategies to explore Chinese social and cultural
identities, sex, gender and other topics.

http://www.ergaodance.cn/

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Artist-in-Residency 2019-2020

On Delineating and Sharing the Spirit
Naoko Horiuchi, Curator, AITThis booklet documents part of a residency and workshop by ErGao, adancer/choreographer who was invited to join the artist-in-residence program.1
Focused on an examination of art and holistic thought which AIT has pursued in recent
years, and adopting the theme of “art, spirit, and community” which has developed outof the dear Me Project2, an initiative launched by AIT that aims to connect art andwelfare, this program was realized in collaboration with the Times Museum inGuangzhou City in Guangdong Province, China, and Social Welfare Service
Corporation Bethel House based in Urakawa Town, Hokkaido Prefecture.
From the end of January 2020, at the same time as ErGao’s residency, an outbreak of
the new Coronavirus disease occurred in Wuhan, China, and began to spread. The
tinge of unease felt at that point was a sign of the global turmoil that would follow. By thetime of ErGao’s return to China at the end of February, the situation had escalated, andthe movement of people had become difficult due to reduced flights and cancellations.
Meanwhile in Japan, institutions were requested to refrain from or cancel events, and“contact” became an abnormal act. Causing a great many deaths across the world, thepandemic has transformed our lives in an instant, simultaneously leading mental healthcare to become an urgent issue.

Amidst such circumstances, the physical expression of ErGao, his experience of staying
at Bethel House, and the workshops he organized with various participants provided an

1

A video document of the workshop is scheduled to be made available on the AIT

website. This booklet mainly documents the ideas and opinions of workshop
participants and guests, included together with illustrations and photographs.

2

An art and learning program initiated by AIT in 2016 directed towards children

in various environments and artists. http://dearme.a-i-t.net/

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Artist-in-Residency 2019-2020

opportunity to explore and realize a “space” where pain can be shared through creative
expression. Bethel House is known for its practice of “self-study” where, as “your own
specialist,” persons suffering from schizophrenia and other mental illnesses investigate
ways of dealing with the difficulties of living. Its philosophy of encouraging its members
to confront the burdens of life by voluntarily expressing themselves and engage indialogue also overlaps with ErGao’s thinking, which is centered on transforming
dialogue into physical expression and earnestly opening oneself to accept others. The
exhibition of such “spirit” is what the mystical thinker, philosopher, and educator Rudolf
Steiner expressed as a “visible language” at the root of speech and words, while it alsobears a relation to Steiner’s concept of eurythmy, an art of movement that connects withcosmic energy3.

From here on, we will undoubtedly experience unforeseen diseases and climatic events
as a result of unprecedented environmental changes. In an age when there istremendous anxiety, the health of the mind will become an essential element forsustaining life more than it ever has before. When imagining the usefulness of art in the
future, is it not also possible that a meditative awareness of the world attained by
entrusting oneself to movements of the spirit will provide an alternative means ofadapting to situations that cannot be comprehended by logical thought alone?

3

R. Steiner, Vorträge über Kunst (translation by Ryuhan Nishikawa, Shirakawa

Shuppan Inc., 1987)

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Artist-in-Residency 2019-2020

Three Cheers for Friendship—Thank You for Inviting Me to
Your House
ErGao, Director of Ergao Dance Production Group, choreographer

For me, the six-week residence program in Japan was the longest participatory art
program I have ever taken part in. To date, I have presented most of my work in theform of theater or video or presented it in public spaces. For this program, the directionof my creative research developed gradually, and I had a growing interest in the idea of“living with more people” in particular.

In this program, I stayed at Bethel House in Urakawa Town in Hokkaido, participated in
the meetings and work of its members, and led recreation and dance activities. Most
likely because I was the first guest from China, they gave me lots of small gifts each day.
A-san told me the story of aliens every day in a lively manner. Matsumoto-san to thecomputer for three hours each day and was especially fond of the Beatles song Imagine.
Taichi-san, who sat quietly in a corner of the room all day long and had a hard time
stopping himself from drinking water, appeared as if he was on an isolated island
surrounded by perpetually flowing water.... Using a small GoPro camera, I recorded
many of the moments that were happening simultaneously while trying to blend in withthe environment they created. What impressed me most was that when we talked about
songs and our hometowns, I felt a sense of déjà vu in all the scenes, mountains, food,and other things that each member spoke about. And the place filled with a gentle andjoyful energy as we moved our bodies gently to delightful music in response to thegradual loss of such traditional things.

Yuuki Aoki, an artist I met in Tokyo, says he was led to think about the essence andsignificance of dance after witnessing 9/11 while staying in the United States, leading
him to return to Tokyo from New York. Thereafter, he initiated dance activities withpeople who have experienced living on the street and went on to launch a dancecompany called Newcomer H Sokerissa! 15 years ago. A documentary film that follows
their activities titled Dancing Homeless is about to be released, and it contains many

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Artist-in-Residency 2019-2020

moving stories about how respective members face various problems, pursue dance,and continue to wander the streets even while losing their way in life.

These experiences likely provide a valid explanation for the function of dance as a formof “interaction and exchange.” Dance, or art in general, creates a process of interaction
and function through language. Of course, dance skills in themselves have also evolved.
As a creator, I think the question of how these personal and valuable experiences andimpressions can be transformed into a collective experience and collective space within
an artwork will be an important aspect of future thought. Inspired by this residence
program, the dance company I founded in Guangzhou, Ergao Dance Production Group,
is also slowly beginning to change, attempting to make expressive forms where theactive involvement of participants becomes a major part of its activities.

In the past, I felt that art was comparable to a star in the sky, while the creative process
through which one reaches that star was like the shaping of a “diamond” resembling its
form. Since then, it has gradually become clear to me that diamonds are in a place farout of reach and unnecessary for most spectators. Now, I want my work to be like glass.
Inexpensive, simple, with a sense of the everyday and yet highly personal, I want toachieve something that anyone can own, that can be enjoyed as if one were playing in
mud, something that can be arranged on a table.

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Artist-in-Residency 2019-2020

ColumnMichitaka Higuchi (social worker, Bethel House)
During the 12 days ErGao stayed in Urakawa, he brought a new kind of extraordinary toBethel even as he acquainted himself with daily life here, already made extraordinary by
various challenges. At Bethel, “disclose your weakness” is a slogan we value, and what
was wonderful for us was that ErGao spoke honestly not as a dancer or instructor but as
an individual who faces hardships, describing his relationship to his own family andconflicts as a dancer.
The dance we created together in the final workshop was an exciting and memorable
experience both for the members and staff. ErGao, please come again!

A Language for Communication
Veronica Wong
Former Chief Curator, Public Programmes Department, Guangdong Times
Museum | Currently Education and Public Programmes Curator at Tai Kwun
Contemporary in Hong Kong
In September 2019, an artist residence program was officially launched as acollaboration between Times Museum, AIT, and Bethel House. More than 50 artists
from all over China applied, and following a joint discussion and final vote, it was
decided that ErGao would participate. ErGao utilized his unique artistic language andexperience of working collaboratively with diverse groups throughout the residency
process. Full of creative significance, this process led to a memorable experience bothfor AIT, the members of Bethel House, and ErGao himself.

The program was designed to explore the communicative role that art plays in diverse
communities, and the possibilities for developing a relationship between contemporary8

Art, Spirit, Community
Artist-in-Residency 2019-2020

art, community, and social care. We believe there is a need to create opportunities torupture situations where art is limited to its own area of communication andeffectiveness. Strangely enough, ErGao’s residency in Japan took place just as
exchanges and communication between countries became difficult as a result of
COVID-19. This has led me to give deeper thought to the urgency and foresight of thisprogram. We are facing, or will surely come to face, more situations where non-verbal
communication or communication is not possible due to differences in language, culture,
viewpoint or ways of thinking.
In such an environment, how will artists and art institutions employ new experiments,
ideas, and initiatives to make art and influence society in the future? I believe that theexperience and results gained from ErGao’s residency will become an important step inanswering this question. I also have high expectations for the Japanese artists’ visits to
China through an ongoing exchange program between the Times Museum and AIT, theexperiences the artists will gain in various local institutions and communities, and thecollaborative exploration of an effective language for communication born from theirexperiences.

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Artist-in-Residency 2019-2020

Freedom Within Constraint
Noriaki Mukaiyachi
Representative director of MC MEDIAN Co., Ltd. and NPO BASE
You seem to have had a very fruitful exchange during your two-week stay at Bethel House,
ErGao. I hear that several members are experiencing a sense of loss in your absence.
It is a shame I could not join you in Urakawa during your stay, but my impression from yourworkshops I attended in Tokyo and other venues was that participants were not simply
memorizing and dancing to choreographed movements one would expect from generic dance
forms, but something more improvised and mutually creative. For example, when the participant
with whom I was paired with grasped my shoulder, I reacted by touching my partner’s back. In
response, the person turned their body and touched my knees in an unconventional chain that
led to movements I could never have conceived of myself.
When one moves freely while constrained by one’s response to the movements of another(one’s partner), that person is not an obstacle; rather, they act as a teacher of the richpossibilities and expressions born from those very interactions. This is the true essence ofhuman collective activity, don’t you think? And so, the expressions on the faces of theparticipants in the midst of these movements were different from the expressions they show inthe regular programs, and I was reminded again of the unique energy they each possess.
What I consistently felt through these workshops was a sense of a “non-normative” environment
for non-prescriptive activities. Since there is no rigid “norm (choreographed movements),” theproblem of “can/cannot” is fundamentally of no concern. Each can participate in his or her own
way. Therefore, there is also no “disability.” This was also in your description. The dance floor,
you explain, is a free space detached from standpoints, gender and all other social norms.
From the outset, “I” is subordinate to various norms. Sickness and disability are also a type ofsocial norm, wouldn’t you agree? And the dance floor might well be the place where the “molds(codes)” for such “norms” are broken.
The “dialogue” we engage in on a daily basis often lapses into disagreement because each of us
is bound by our point of view, gender, culture, and various other norms. Communication skill isoften talked about, but perhaps this does not signify the ability to talk articulately; rather, it may
well signify the ability to emancipate oneself from the restraints of such norms and to transcenddisagreement. I think that is what everyone was doing in those workshops.

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Artist-in-Residency 2019-2020

I would like to express my gratitude to all those who made such a valuable experience possible.

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Artist-in-Residency 2019-2020

Workshops

Inviting contemporary dance group Sokerissa! as a guest, the participants moved theirbodies based on experiences and memories that had impressed ErGao during his stayat Bethel House, and divided into groups to create and perform improvisational dances
imagined from photos and episodes each had brought and shared at the workshop. The
participants enjoyed discovering how bodily memory forms the “self” through thephysicality of others.

Dance Workshop by ErGao
Date: Monday, February 24, 2020
Place: SHIBUYA PARCO 9F Creative Studio GAKU (Shibuya-ku, Tokyo)
Participants: 25 in all age groups

Comments from participants (excerpt)•

I used to think that ‘dance’ requires no words, and it expresses a feeling that isindescribable, so I enjoyed a harmony of the language made with the text, memory,and our body movement. Embracing myself lived to this moment is what I want todo.

•Integrating my memory into others’ feeling and movement created a dance that I
never imagined!

•

It was my first time to participate in the workshop having with a lot of dialogues.

•

To move my body with others was simply fun.

The daycare center Rueca annexed to Hida Clinic has a close relationship with BethelHouse, leading daycare members and staff to participate in the workshop. Based on the
lively conversation about bathing habits that had taken place beforehand, theparticipants relaxed their bodies first by picturing themselves soaking in a large bathtub
and being given a massage, in addition to doing a warm-up to a song by MichaelJackson. After sharing a video of the oni (demon) dance that ErGao had performed at
the Setsubun event at Bethel House, the participants divided into groups to consider an

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Artist-in-Residency 2019-2020

original choreography for the lyrics of “Hina Matsuri,” which they then presented in theform of an improvisational dance.

Date: Wednesday, February 26, 2020
Place: Daycare Center Rueca (Nagareyama-city, Chiba)
Participants: 30 members and staff

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Artist-in-Residency 2019-2020

The body as a Site of Free Movement and ResistanceYuuki Aoki
(Dancer/Choreographer/Leader of "Newcomer H Sokerissa!")“I feel that China and Japan are both facing the same situation where technologicaldevelopment is dividing human beings.” These are ErGao’s words. He also talked about
a diminishing sense of the physical in real life. As technological development advances
relentlessly in this way, pursuing convenience that sees machines do all the work at thepush of a button, I feel that interaction and cooperation between human beings as ameans of utilizing the respective qualities of the individual will steadily disappear.

ErGao’s workshop was organized around the theme of “connectivity and creativity,” thevery thing that is being lost. Taking place at GAKU in the Shibuya PARCO building,
ErGao invited the Tokyo participants to dance as he showed a video recorded during
his stay at Bethel House in Urakawa Town in Hokkaido in which song-loving members
dance to “Let It Be” by the Beatles, giving careful consideration to the connection with
Hokkaido through bodily experience. The participants also shared with each otherphotos they had brought to the workshop that depicted familiar memories from the past,making connections between their experiences and creating physical movements out of
the associations that were triggered by their memories. From this workshop, I felt an“ideal state” of the individual and group.

In addition, ErGao’s workshop at the day care Rueca in Nagareyama City in Chiba
prefecture advanced at a particularly nice tempo. I imagine that for people with mental
illness, giving priority to sensory physical reactions is an effective means of suppressing
thought-centered activities that tend to hold sway in daily life. Organized with anunderlying feeling of affection, I am convinced that such a workshop, which does not
attempt to attain some perfect ideal through the reformation of the individual, but
creates encounters between individuals living their own respective lives while placing
value on what is gained solely from such shared experience, creates a space where theparticipants can move freely with minds at peace.

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Artist-in-Residency 2019-2020

In the future, physical communication may well become more and more of an
exceptional experience. A person I dance with who has experienced living on the street
remarked: “Through dance, I have had the opportunity to interact with people who areliving regular daily lives.” I think it is important to create spaces open to all regardless ofcircumstances and generation, including people with mental illness, where it becomes
commonplace for each to habitually utilize his or her own individuality.

ErGao’s approach explained at the beginning is precisely “the body’s resistance tofragmentation,” and its strength is spectacular when coupled with his purity. Oblivious ofgenre, such activities are what is sought in a modern world tending to focus oncompetition.

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Artist-in-Residency 2019-2020

Programme Partners
Bethel House (Urakawa, Hokkaido)
In 1984, Bethel House officially started in an old church located in Urakawa town in
Hokkaido where people with mental disabilities formed a survivor's group outside of thehospital and lived together. As an expert to one's symptoms of Schizophrenia, theirphilosophy of agony, despair, restoration, and existence shared at the well-known
Member Self Study Meeting supports peers to cope with difficulties. The study
encourages active participation and openness to share one's deep experiences andweakness that may relate to marginalized social issues. AIT has visited Bethel House toparticipate in their annual festival as well as a previous lecture in the series of "Art andSocial Welfare Lab" that their educational program MAD once presented.

Guangdong Times Museum (Guangzhou, China)
Guangdong Times Museum is a nonprofit institution funded in 2010, Guangzhou, China.
Designed by Rem Koolhaas and Alain Fouraux. The different functionalities of Times
Museums are distributed over different floors of a residential building, and have become
an interweaving structure of everyday life and living space. Guangdong Times Museum
initiated Times Art Center Berlin as its parallel institution in Europe lately.

About Arts Initiative Tokyo [AIT]Arts Initiative Tokyo [AIT] begun by six art curators and organizers in 2001 to create aplatform to think about, learn and discuss arts. Registered as a non-profit organizationin 2002, AIT continues to cooperate with individuals, companies, foundations and publicorganizations to share the values of arts through our programs.
In collaboration with various organizations, the recent AIT residency invites artists,
curators, writers, and educators with multidisciplinary works and practices to diversify
expertise and locations in exploration of a relation between the contemporary
arts/culture and issues that require global attention.

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Art, Spirit, Community
Artist-in-Residency 2019-2020

Acknowledgement
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to the following institutions andindividuals for their generous assistance and contributions throughout the residency.
[In random order, Honorifics omitted]

Urakawa Bethel House

NPO BASE

Soramugikai Hida Clinic

Shinsui Urakawa Higashimachi Clinic

Newcomer H Sokerissa!

Creative Studio GAKU

Noriaki Mukaiyachi

Masato Yokouchi

Etsuko Mukaiyachi

Matsuyoshi Koiso

Michitaka Higuchi

Tokuchika Nishi

Noriyuki Ito

Yoshiharu Watanabe

Seiran Tsuno

Haruo Ito

Nozomi Izumi

Shuichiro Hirakawa

Yuko Suzuki

Koji Yamashita

Daichi Azuma

Noritsugu Takagoshi

Daishi Takeda

Yuta Takeda

Yuji Izumi

Mariko Hato

Yasuhiko Tachibana

Veronica Wong

Hiroyuki Fujino

Cathleen Pan Siming

Yuuki Aoki

Everyone who participated in the events

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Artist-in-Residency 2019-2020

Art, Spirit, Community
Artist-in-Residency 2019-2020
Arts Initiative Tokyo – Bethel House – Times Museum
January 14th – February 29th, 2020

[ Events ]Translation:

Michitaka Higuchi (Feb.5), Megumi Shimizu (Feb.24), Lily Ikeda (Feb.26)

Photography:

Nozomi Izumi (Feb.5), Yukiko Koshima (Feb.24,26)

Film:

Takashi Orikasa, Yasuyuki Fujii (Feb.24)

Support:Shoko Aoki, Rie Okuma [AIT][ Art, Spirit, Community ]<Publication>
Editor:Naoko Horiuchi, Shintaro Tokairin, Rika Fujii [AIT]

Text:

Yuuki Aoki, Noriaki Mukaiyachi, Michitaka Higuchi, Veronica Wong,
ErGao, Naoko Horiuchi

Translation:

Megumi Shimizu (Chinese), Jaime Humphreys (English, P.3-15),
AIT (English)

Design:Kana Tsukada (ME&MIRACO)

Publisher:

Arts Initiative Tokyo [AIT]<Artist-in-Residency>
January 14th – February 29th, 2020
Coordination:

Naoko Horiuchi, Shintaro Tokairin, Rika Fujii [AIT]Support:Urakawa Bethel House, Guangdong Times Museum

Funded by the Agency for Cultural Affairs Government of Japan in the fiscal 2019
Produced by Arts Initiative Tokyo [AIT]18