about solo performance by Shun Momose

This is my artist statement for improvise performance in music.

The act in the performance is based on a mutual relationship between the actor and their audience. Emotions are a secondary element generated through the act. Actions that do not evoke emotions, especially genuine emotions, in the performers themselves are an extension of the mundane and are therefore excluded from the stage.

The performance consists of a fragmentary sequence of actions, and the audience is capable of judging these actions. The actor must play with the audience’s capacity for judgment. The audience’s ability to judge is an ontological understanding of the event (in this case, the existence of time and place / confirmation of the here and now).

The ability to judge presupposes an assumption to understand the ontology of the event (in this case, the existence of time and place / the certainty that we are here and now). The loss of this ability, upon which everyday life unconsciously relies, leads to the loss and dissolution of the reality of the here and now conveyed to the observer.

“Our trust in the reality of life and our trust in the world are not the same. The latter primarily arises from the permanence and stability of the world, which far surpasses the permanence and stability of earthly life… In contrast, trust in the reality of life depends on the intensity with which life is felt, on the impulse with which it makes itself noticeable. This intensity is so great, its power so fundamental, that whenever it manifests itself in the form of coldness or sadness, all other worldly reality disappears into darkness. It disappears into darkness.”

– Hannah Arendt

“The act of silence is based on the mutual relationship between the actor and their witness. The silent listener is the never-ending source of meaning. The dialogue offers words to this silent one. It is a dead letter, so to speak, an empty water bottle. The speaker understands what the listener says, even if they say it themselves. Only when the “living spirit” is brought back from the dead, from the empty state, does it come back into contact with the one life that is ready to revive it.”

-Walter Benjamin