Quick Silver

The title Quick Silver refers to Ko Murobushi, an internationally acclaimed Butoh artist. Butoh, influenced by European expressionism, shifted Japanese traditional dance to the artistic avant-garde of the 20th century postwar period. The founders were Tatsumi Hijikata and Kazuo Ohno, who fought conventions with the desire to reveal the truth of the human being in life and death. Over the years they developed their individual style of Butoh. Hijikata explored the transmutation of the human body into other forms, such as those of animals. He also developed a poetic and surreal choreographic language to help the dancer transform into other states of being. Ohno is described as the soul of Butoh. He once commented on his work: The best thing someone can say is that while watching my performance they begin to cry. It is not important to understand what I am doing; perhaps it is better if they don't understand, but just respond to the dance. Martin Childs, Kazuo Ohno, 2010 Butoh can involve playful and grotesque imagery, taboo topics, unusual environments, and is traditionally performed in white body makeup with slow controlled motion. I met Ko Murobushi in the late 90s, attended his workshops and had the opportunity to photograph several creations in Europe and Japan. When Ko died in 2015 Impulstanz gave me the opportunity to build an installation for a memorial night. The installation consists of river stones, positioned on the floor as a single structure and mounted up in the air on thin cotton strings, mirroring in number and shape its counterpart. Bright natural fabrics cover the stones and the surrounding environment, referring to a Japanese rock or zen garden. Such structures aim at imitating the intimate essence of nature, not its actual appearance. A selection of work was presented or featured at Libreria Editrice Cafoscarina Venezia IT, Tsubouchi Memorial Theatre Museum Waseda University Tokyo JP, Gallery Combaz 7 Crans Montana CH, Doc! Photo Magazine Warsaw PL, Edition Autrement Paris FR and Anzenberger Agency Vienna AT.