During our residency in Nodar in spring 2010, we experienced the intimate connection between people and water. Staying in the Nodar Artist Residency Center, and spending everyday recording sounds and images by the Paiva River, we felt how the water cleaned our bodies and souls.The transparency and purity of the Paiva River taught us that to live with the rhythm of water is to live in harmony with oneself. Our physical contact with the Paiva River, i.e. to stand by its shore and dip the underwater camera or hydrophone into the water, or stepping into the river and feeling the strength of its current, made us realise how water reflects our hearts. Only when we give ourselves to the water’s flow, the river reveals its depthand beauty to us. Through the daily dialogue with the Paiva River we discovered the different visual and acoustic expressions of water. We understood that water sounds and looks different above and underwater, we felt its texture, the heaviness of its materiality, the permeability ofits border, and that the outside world shows itself in a different angle from within the water. We also felt the drawing power of the river’s flow, and that water has the strength of taking life as well as giving life. The residency also gave us an insight of the way to live in harmony with nature. Water is used as a common good, and is being shared by animals, people, the trees, the mountains and the valleys. Water flows through the villages in an ancient and wise canal system, where it goes through different hands, mouths, houses, gardens, fields etc. It is used for cooking, for watering the plants, feeding the animals, washing the laundry, and other daily activities. It then joins the Paiva River to become a larger current, carrying all these experiences eventually into the ocean. We felt that this microcosm reflects the circulation of water on a global scale. We also remembered that the first contact between Portugal and Japan was by water: In 1543, a Portuguese ship arrived in the harbour of Tanegashima in Southern Japan, and thus started the overse as trade between Japan and Europe.
The trade even left its mark in the Japanese language, where words as bread derive from Portuguese. We enjoyed the fact that almost 500 years later, two Japanese artists were invited to Portugal to explore the water of the Paiva River. We imagine that some water drops that we met during our residency must still remember carrying the Portuguese ship to the Japanese shore. Also, Masayo was strongly reminded of her experience in Lil’wat, a Native Canadian community in British Columbia, Canada. The Lil’wat people also live with nature. The salmon which comes up the river every summer, is their staple food, and by fishing the salmon, there is a strong connection between the Lil’wat people and the cycle of life. They told Masayo that water has memories. Everything it touches, it remembers. The Lil’wat people used water to carry messages, and they continue to believe in the communicative powers of water. During the residency, Masayo was reinforced in this understanding of water. Yasuno was deeply touched by the kindness and warmth of the people and animals we met. In the simplicity of their life she saw a beautiful harmony between humans and nature. She thinks that water is like a mirror of our hearts. The flow of the Paiva River reflects the people’s pure hearts, and the water cleans their hearts. She understood it as an important concept, as the base of life. With all these impressions, experiences, and imaginations that we gathered during our residency, we thought of bringing the collected images and sounds of Paiva River, to other places, into our daily lives, and the cities we live in. How would we do it? When we went to Castro Daire to see off Yasuno, who left a few days earlier then Masayo, we saw a man walking in the streets, an umbrella hanging from the collar of his coat on his back. It was a simple, daily, and at the same time a poetic image. An umbrella could carry our thoughts and imaginations, the sounds and images between different places. It could bring the Paiva River experience into our cities and daily lives. Our work is to continue our journey with images and sounds, as water continues its journey through time and space. As water carries experiences and memories, purifying the heart, we can carry an umbrella to collect and spread our experiences and memories to share with others. Thus came the idea of the umbrella installation, where the umbrella is upside down, catching as well as emanating sounds and images. Our images and sounds are like rain drops, carrying the memory of the residency and the Paiva River, falling gently on our hearts.
Yasuno Miyauchi, graduated in Classical and Modern Musical Composition from the Gakugei University of Tokyo. Between 2005 and 2007, she finished her post graduate studies at the IAMAS (Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences), and studied media art, electronic music and algorithmic composition under the supervision of Professor Masahiro Miwa. The core of her work presents live composition and performance, and has been collaborating with different medium artists, from film to dance and installation. Lastly, since 2006, she has been working with the video artist Masayo Kajimura.
Masayo Kajimura was born in 1976 in Berlin, Germany in the house of a second generation of Japanese immigrants. Presently she lives and works mainly as a video artist. Masayo Kajimura has directed many short-films, video-installations and dance/musical collaborative pieces. As an artist she has shown her works at an international level, including Germany, Japan, Bulgaria, Holland and U.S.A.; As an example Kajimura has presented her work at the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Amsterdam Film Experience, or Sibiu International Theater Festival.
ARTISTIC WORKS