update: 2023.1.20
Participating Project | International Creator Residency Program |
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Activity Based | London |
City / Place stayed | Tokyo |
Period | 2023.1 - 2023.3 |
I am actively researching how care and violence are simultaneously present in intimate relationships such as love, friendship, partnership or family structures. While looking for simple but powerful gestures that contain ambiguity of violence and intimacy I followed my intuition from 2016 and turned to research martial arts as a social practice where both violence and care meet. While exploring philosophical and strategic concepts of Japanese martial arts I came across the principle of aiki (合気) - the principle of matching your opponent, joining physically and mentally with him for the express purpose of avoiding a direct clash of force in order to defeat him. This mimicry also occurs involuntarily between lovers and is a spirit hunting strategy among some indigenous tribes. The purpose of my residency in Tokyo will be to investigate the martial art aiki principle both theoretically and in practice.