目目連
Mokumokuren


Video installation art.
At Tanaka-tei Shikano-town Tottori-PRF Japan.
25 - 30.Mar.2017

Vimeo: https://vimeo.com/586280703
YouTube: https://youtu.be/4PFH6QayyGU



English sentence is below.

みなさんは目目連という妖怪をご存知でしょうか。空き家などの古い障子に無数の目が浮かび上がった妖怪の名前を目目連(もくもくれん)と呼びます。名前は知らなくとも、この妖怪の姿をテレビや小説、漫画などで見たことのある人もいることでしょう。
今回、旧田中邸という空き家になってしまった立派な日本建築の中で展示をさせていただくことになり、さて何を作ろうかと頭の中をこねくり回していたら、ぽっと思い浮かんできたのがこの目目連という妖怪のイメージでした。実は昨年この田中邸に泊まった際に、階段にちょこんと座る女の子が一瞬見えた気がして、一緒に泊まっていた人たちと「もしかしたら座敷童がいるのかも」と話が盛り上がりました。ただの見間違いや気のせいかもしれませんが、晴れ渡った空と海が広がる太平洋側や山陽地方で暮らしていた私にとって、鹿野の古い街並みに流れるしっとりとした空気や山陰地方が持つ独特の陰翳はなんとも言えない妖しさや艶かしさがあり、妖怪がさり気なく空き家に住み着いているような、そんな気配を感じるのです。
 では、なぜ様々な妖怪がいるなかで目目連という妖怪が思い浮かんだのかというと、それはこの展覧会の三日前に行われた若者座談会での発言を受けてのことだと思います。若者座談会では「地方への移住や生活は美談のように語られがちだけど、実際には大変なことや嫌なこともあるはず。そこで今回は若者だけで集まって本音を話してもらおう。」という主旨のもと、鹿野 近辺の若者世代十人ほどに集まって話をしていただきました。そこで出てきた話の一つに「見られている。些細なことでもすぐに噂話になって広がる。全てが筒抜けになってしまう。」という悩みがありました。鹿野に限らず、地方の狭い町や村ではよく起きている現象ですが、人との関わり方や結びつき方の変化した都市の人々や若い世代にとって、地方の世間の 狭さや人間関係の濃さは強いストレスや抵抗感の原因になっているのも事実です。こちらを見つめるたくさんの目。それは良い方へ働けばその地域に暮らす人々を見守る優しい目となるのですが、ともすれば暮らしの自由を阻害する監視の目となってしまいます。地元の人にとって他所からくる移住者やちょっと変わった若者は異物として見られがちですが、裏を返せば移住してくる人や若い世代には地元の人々の視線が異形のような存在感や圧力として感じられるということでもあります。お互いの歩み寄りと理解、そしてむやみに詮索しようとしない配慮なくしては地元の人にとっても移住者や若者にとっても、住み良い幸せな暮らしは成り立たないでしょう。

この障子に投影されているたくさんの目は、てぶら革命のメンバーと私が鹿野でお会いした人々の目をお願いして撮影させていただいたものです。協力していただいた方々に感謝の言葉を捧げます。


This exhibition is held by "Tebura Kakumei" at the old Japanese abandoned house Tanaka-tei in Shikano-Cho Tottori Japan.
About Tebura Kakumei: http://djh-leipzig.de/en/tebura

This work is a video installation based on the motif of a Japanese "Yokai (that means Japanese monster)" called Mokumokuren that lives in vacant houses. The Mokumokuren usually live in torn shoji (Japanese paper sliding walls), although they can also be found in tatami floor mats and walls. The name "Mokumokuren" literally means "many eyes" or "continuous eyes". The Mokumokuren is considered by the Japanese to be one of the traditional inhabitants of haunted houses. When I was thinking about what to make, the image of this yokai called Mokumokuren came to my mind.
When I stayed at this vacant house last year, I thought I saw a girl sitting on the stairs for a moment, and the people I was staying with and I got excited and said, "Maybe there is a Zashiki-Warashi (that live in parlors or storage rooms, and that perform pranks, and that people who see one would be visited with good fortune)." It may have just been my imagination, but having lived in the Pacific and Sanyo regions, where the sunny skies and seas are clear, the moist air of the old streets of Shikano and the unique shades of the San-in region has a mysteriousness. The atmosphere and the unique shade of the San'in region have a mysterious and lustrous quality that is hard to describe. I think the reason why I came up with the name "Mokumokuren" out of all the different types of yokai was because of a comment made at a youth roundtable discussion held three days before the exhibition. At the round-table discussion, we said, "People talk about moving to the countryside and living there like it's a beautiful story, but in reality, there must be some hard times and unpleasant things. So let's get together with young people and have them talk about what they think in honesty. This time, let's get together with only young people and have them talk about what they think." With this as the main objective, about ten young people who had moved to Shikano gathered to talk. One of the things that came out of the discussion was, "Someone is always watching us, and even if it's something trivial, it will quickly become gossip and spread. Everything becomes public knowledge." This was one of the worries I had. This is a common phenomenon not only in Shikano but also in small towns and villages in rural areas. It is a fact that the smallness of the world and the density of human relationships in rural areas cause a strong sense of stress for people in cities and the younger generation, who have more indifferent relationships with people than in rural areas. Many eyes are staring at you. On the positive side, they can be gentle eyes that watch over the people living in the area, but on the negative side, they can be eyes of surveillance that inhibit the freedom of living. For the locals, immigrants from other places and young people who are a little different are often seen as foreign, but for the immigrants and the younger generation, the gaze of the locals can be felt like an odd presence and pressure. Without mutual compromise, understanding, and consideration not to pry into each other's affairs unnecessarily, it will not be possible for locals, immigrants, and young people to live a comfortable and happy life.
The many eyes projected on these shoji screens were taken by members of the Tebura Revolution and people we met in Shikano. I would like to express my gratitude to all of them for their cooperation.



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(C) Akihiro Yamamoto All Rights Reserved.


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