PRESENTATION

In winter of 2020, I was in a creation residency in Japan, at Tokyo Arts and Space (TOKAS), thanks to the generous support from CALQ to begin Bruissement de mousses, a research project on the esthetic, philosophical and spiritual presence of moss (bryophytes) in Japanese culture.

 

The pandemic shortened my stay in Japan and the project could not be completed at the time. But the patience, resilience, and perseverance of moss exudes a clarity that this project will take flight over the next few years when the opportune moment presents itself. In the meantime, below are some shared traces of the trip.

 

Moss merely asks for time, quiet, and shade to grow. For it to reveal its splendor, moss must take on a humble stature: belly to the ground, attention directed towards a different scale of perception so that other landscapes may emerge in front of our eyes. A body in prayer, attention turned towards the beauty of the trivial.

 

Moss is appreciated, respected, and cultivated around numerous Japanese temples and gardens. I discovered, notably in Shintoism spirituality, a sacred rapport with nature; stones, trees, and the elements. This humble perspective towards the sacredness of nature has nourished the project in many facets. During my stay, I visited Kyoto, Ohara, Kamakura, Nara and Tokyo to photograph and film moss around temples as well as around cityscapes, in the cracks of the sidewalks. These images allowed me to create a body of works at TOKAS: in fact, while my artistic approach now brings me to prioritize choreographic projects, I had a painting career before turning to dance so I seized the opportunity to renew my connection to the medium, if not also because there was no dedicated space to dance at TOKAS. I painted images of moss onto discarded maps I found, playing with different scales of macro and microscopic perception. I also developed a series of photographs of « positions » for observing moss in cities and near temples, that were displayed for the studio opening of TOKAS on March 14th, 2020.

 

The general interest towards moss in Japanese culture brought me to attend a « koke terrarium » (moss terrarium) course; to meet a distinguished bryologist and director of the Tsukuba botanical gardens who organized moss observation hikes in the forest during the summer; to visit the Bonzai museum where « koke dama » (decorative moss balls) are created and to discover the art of « suiseki » (precious stones that are selected and mounted on a pedestal that reflects their shape). These experiences piqued my curiosity towards the art of « accompanying » nature in its creation; to reveal the beauty of what is already there, with attention and patience.

During my stay in Tokyo, I also took lessons in Nihon-buyo and Butoh to nourish my thought process on attention to details, inherent to these Japanese movement practices. Nihon-buyo is a very precise and contained dance, where the body is constricted by the yukata, the obi and the maneuvering of a mai-ogi (fan). I discovered unexpected parallels between my choreographic process, anchored in flamenco, and Nihon-nuyo; the relationship to music and vocal accompaniment, the striking of the ground to emphasize rhythm, the precision of all of the body parts in codified movement. In contrast, the Butoh workshops allowed me to delve into sensation and the continuously evolving present moment, without any pre-established physical form but in a similar sensitivity to details.