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Tsuyoshi Ozawa ALL RETURN: \u201cCome back in a hundred years\u2019 time. After a hundred years you\u2019ll understand.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n The new piece \u201cThe Return of S.T.\u201d<\/strong><\/p>\n Tsuyoshi Ozawa\u2019s exhibition \u201cCome back in a hundred years\u2019 time. After a hundred years you\u2019ll understand.\u201d is currently showing in Hirosaki City, Aomori. The venue is a former cider brewery that was established in the Meiji\/Taisho era, and that now houses the Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art. This exhibition is the second at the museum since its opening in July 2020. On display are a total of five works \u2013 four from the \u201cThe Return of\u2026\u201d series that Ozawa has been working on since 2013, and a new one. This is at once the first occasion at which all parts in the series come together, in a space that has been renovated by architect Tsuyoshi Tane based on the concept of \u201cInheritance of the memories<\/span>.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tsuyoshi Ozawa, The Return of J.L., <\/i>2016\u00a0\u00a0<\/span>Installation view, Photo: Tomoyuki Kusunose\u3000Courtesy of Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art<\/p>\n <\/p>\n OZAWA Tsuyoshi, The Return of J.L.<\/em> (detail), 2016\u00a0 <\/span>Courtesy of the Artist<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Each of the featured works was modeled after one modern historical figure that has been operating on a global scale, portraying a fictitious person\u2019s life and death, and telling a fictional story that may have been reality if that person was alive today. All this is illustrated by means of hand-drawn picture signboards, music and imagery that portray modern\u00a0and contemporary-era Japan in critical yet humorous ways. The figures that have been \u201cbrought back to life\u201d through Ozawa\u2019s works so far are Hideyo Noguchi, Tsuguharu Foujita, John Lennon, and Kakuzo (Tenshin) Okakura. While all of them were great and famous men with exceptional talents, here we see them struggle, as these works focus on their basic human aspects. Characteristic of these works is also the fact that they were produced at places in countries that are in one way or other related to the respective figure. The previous volumes were set in Accra (Ghana), Bali (Indonesia), Manila (Philippines) and Kolkata (India). As an additional highlight in this exhibition, they are presented alongside various related materials that shed light on the creative processes of each of these works.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Roundtable Meeting Room: Archive of the Returnees and the 100 Years, Photo: Tomoyuki Kusunose\u3000Courtesy of Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art<\/p>\n <\/p>\n The protagonist in the new piece, titled \u201cThe Return of S.T.,\u201d is Aomori-born Shuji Terayama (S.T.), who makes his \u201creturn\u201d to Hirosaki here. Terayama is known for his artistic endeavors in the realms of poetry, experimental theater and cinema, but as a creator of popular songs among others, he was equally at home also in mass culture. In addition to these activities, he was also known as a critic in competitive sports like horse racing and boxing. As a boy that had lost his father in the war, and was abandoned by his mother, Terayama grew up under rather complicated circumstances in the Tohoku region, and the childhood experiences of those early postwar years left their mark on his entire life. Ozawa picked up the story of Terayama, who eventually sought refuge in the world of fiction as a place where he would be accepted, and created a fictional narrative of what may have been, with an eye to modern art and history. It is somewhere around the idea of \u201csomewhere else but not here,\u201d where the two of them occupy the same kind of mental place. The second half of this exhibition\u2019s title, \u201cAfter a hundred years\u2026,” was taken from a line in one of Terayama\u2019s late movies. This somewhat prophetic phrase resonates beyond space and time with the very idea behind the \u201cThe Return of\u2026\u201d series: face the past, consider the now, and feed the future, at places built from construction materials that were used back in the day.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tsuyoshi Ozawa, The Return of S.T., <\/i>2020\u00a0 <\/span>Installation view, Photo: Tomoyuki Kusunose\u3000Courtesy of Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tsuyoshi Ozawa, The Return of S.T.<\/i>\u00a0 (Original painting), <\/i>2020,\u00a0<\/span>Photo: Tomoyuki Kusunose\u00a0 \u00a0Courtesy of Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art<\/p>\n <\/p>\n In a space with a high vaulted ceiling, locally made traditional neputa<\/em> (large, fan-shaped floats with epic and fantastic images, used at festivals) surround the new work \u201cS.T.\u201d like a stage set that evokes images of Aomori landscapes. Terayama had initially launched his theatrical troupe Tenjo Sajiki under the banner of a \u201crevival of the show tent,” and likewise, Ozawa has been exploring the relationship between traditional crafts and modern art with a focus on show tents as places for presenting the latest in art, in times when museums were yet to be established in Japan. This work can be seen as another effort on that same vein.<\/p>\n Created in Hirosaki and Iran, the work was mainly inspired by the fact that Terayama had been invited twice to Iranian theater festivals, where the performances of Tenjo Sajiki reportedly had a considerable impact on the local theater scene. It is studded with Terayama\u2019s quotes and images, including eight sketches and lyrics starting with one of Terayama\u2019s favorite lines, \u201cYureru kisha no naka de umareta (\u201cBorn in a swaying train\u201d).\u201d Ozawa actually traveled to Iran in the footsteps of Shuji Terayama, and constructed the fictional story of S.T. by adding any matter of interest that he encountered along the way. Like in the other works in this series, Ozawa\u2019s original plot was visualized in paintings by a signboard painter, lyrics translated into English and the local language \u2013 Persian in this case \u2013 and music contributed by members of the local Otagh Band, all of which was ultimately blended together in a music video that also features other footage shot in Hirosaki and Iran. Each exhibition in this series is accompanied by a printed publication that serves as a manual for gaining insight into the respective project and the underlying story, featuring a mixture of essays by the curators and local academics, Ozawa\u2019s own production diary, and information on collaborators.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tsuyoshi Ozawa, The Return of S.T., <\/i>2020\u00a0 <\/span>(partial) \u3000Collection of Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art\u3000Courtesy of the Artist<\/p>\n <\/p>\n If there is one notable difference between this and previous works, it has to be its creators\u2019 formidable evasion of limitations to the freedom of expression. When asking Ozawa about this, he explained that these things had been on his mind even before working in Iran, as he had experienced censorship for exhibitions in China, and <\/span>witnessed how Chinese artists evaded that for the The Second Ghangzhou Triennale in 2005.<\/a>[1] For this work, he teamed up with a local band that has been operating in the public while struggling to overcome restrictions of public artistic expression in Iran, and tell in their songs about \u201cThere are expressions that slip through the grate of<\/span> human history.\u201d\u00a0For the oil paintings featured in his work, Ozawa accepted certain modifications, as the\u00a0painter would have risked imprisonment if he adopted the sketch of Debuko Oyama,\u00a0showing bare skin as it was. Just like Ozawa\u2019s own early works of \u201csodan art\u201d<\/a>[2], \u00a0in which\u00a0he subsequently altered paintings that other people had started, within the cultural\u00a0exchange between two nations, the \u201cThe Return of\u2026\u201d series gradually turned into a work of art beyond the powers of individual creators.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/p>\n Tsuyoshi Ozawa, The Return of S.T., <\/i>2020\u00a0 <\/span>Installation view, Photo: Tomoyuki Kusunose\u3000Courtesy of Hirosaki Museum of Contemporary Art<\/p>\n <\/p>\n As it seems, the creative process remained thrilling until the very end. Following anti-government demonstrations in Iran in late 2019, and the assassination of General Soleimani that further worsened the political situation between Iran and the United States, in 2020 it was Covid-19 that made working in Iran impossible. Ozawa had to make last-minute arrangements and switch from on-location shooting to indoor and remote operations, and wasn\u2019t even able to go and pick up the paintings that, considering the weak logistic infrastructure in Iran, were made small enough to fit into hand luggage. Instead, coordinator Megumi Shimizu sent a representative to the artist\u2019s remote studio in order to collect the paintings, which were then given to a Japanese resident in Tehran, who carried them in her hand luggage during her emergency return to Japan. For the displays at Hirosaki, the original paintings were enlarged and color printed onto signboards.<\/p>\n While it is easy to imagine that there were more misunderstandings, misinterpretations and accidents involved than in any of the previous projects, there are also new creative aspects that were inspired through this form of collaboration. At the final stage of the creative process, it is a usual practice for Ozawa to add a Japanese chorus and images to the locally recorded music and video footage. Considering that the Iranian people enjoy poetry on a daily basis, for this work the Iranian side suggested combining Otagh Band’s\u00a0<\/span>play\u00a0<\/span>and song<\/span>\u00a0with Japanese lyrics recited by Ozawa himself, and on top of that, Tsugaru-jamisen (Japanese stringed instrument)<\/span> player Kaoru Osanai\u2019s shamisen performance and lyrics in Tsuruga dialect. In a space that is filled with a mixture of forceful Persian musical instruments and the sharp sound of the Tsugaru-jamisen, Ozawa gives the lyrics a body and a voice, and against the backdrop of growing intolerance around the world, that voice sounds like an encouragement to \u201cSpeak eloquently in difficult times.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Notes<\/p>\n <\/a>[1] See also http:\/\/archive.realtokyo.co.jp\/docs\/en\/column\/40nen\/bn\/40nen_sp_en\/<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/realtokyo.co.jp\/_sys2024\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/241a53ba31d85b8f7e6208fa6a026d97-1024x684.jpg\")
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