untitled: x (a research trip to Japan)

First I met the fish in the koi pond just outside this room between the kitchen and the storage room - I walked in those waters while the fish swam

Making the encounter new again and again

I washed each hand in the room

I took my time

I had small white towels for each pair of hands, at least 30 pairs

More hands than I expected

I poured hot water into a bowl and took some jasmine oil and poured into the water

And it cleansed, it cleansed

I was rigorous and slow,

I looked each person in the eye

And took their hands carefully, ceremoniously

As if it was the most precious thing I carried in my hands

This was certainly an appearance of Mar (one of the voices from my script above)

The only sound in the room came from the water, the hose down in the wine bar hole

The water poured sensuously

Images from research trip in Tokyo, Japan at the Kyojimaeki station collective
from performance sharing (31.01.2025) developed with Mutsumineiro duet (outsider eye and butoh dance training and assistance), Kyojimaeki station collective: Hirose Guy (sound and assistance), Ita-Choco Rasho (water-hole-wine bar site), Mahari Kandel (chef and assistance), Miyama Sakura (assistance), Sawa Hiraka (documentation)

photos by Mutsumi and video stills by Sawa Hiraka

Expansion again

I give myself as an offering to these waters

De um mar pra outro mar - from one sea to another

And then i attempt to lift myself up with struggle

Like a baby who is trying to learn how to crawl and stand up

The shapeshifter takes over once again

I fail, i fall, I fall, I fail

And yet, there is pleasure

I try and try until I weighing my feet onto the ground in the mud underneath

I lift myself up unfamiliarly

An erect line

Feet planted onto the ground

Once I was done with the hands of each body in the room, I layed down on a piece of black fabric, and Neiro, Radu-san and Manu-san brought me inside the hole into the water

A water burial ensued

The water was cold

I was completely submerged after the drop

I await an invitation to lift myself up

But the first, the waters took me in

Fed me

Cleansed me

Poured life into me

From death to rebirth

From rebirth to death

It’s all the same

A newborn dropped into the world

Slowly awakening

The body stretches to the max

There is no limit

The water pulls me in opposite directions at once

Guy-san plays the leaf-blower

loud, noisy, and rhythmic somehow

Leg slightly bended

A line pulls me upwards

Feet going downwards

Contra-energy

I reach towards the light

The light guides me up

I am hers

Her warm wraps herself around me

And i’m another, whole

Another, whole

I look up

I invite the audience to stay there in this moment, locked up

(Neiro kept saying in my training “stay Sall, stay stay stay stayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy, stayyyyyy, keep going, give your max, give your max, give your max, stayyyyyyyyyyyy, don’t change the position, hold , hold it, hold it, keep the sensation, don’t lose it, don’t lose it, keep the sensation

Oh you are losing the sensation now, breathe into it

Stayyyyyyyyyyyy”)

I made sure I stayed here this time, I don’t know for how long,

I was waiting for the waters to move me again. There is no ego, I am listening

Fluidity

Shapeshifter limbs

Twists

I land in power

A muscular omnipresent body