Higashiyama absences
in the trilogy Higashiyama, sensorial walks for 10 hikers
with Misa Murata
2021
in Kyoto, JP
Photo/video Daisuke Taskashige



This second hike pays a tribute to who and what is no longer here: what has fallen, what has disappeared, massively eaten, cut down, or reduced to the shade. Pointin typhoons, climatic imbalances, overplanting of trees for construction (too much shade, fragile roots of Sugi and Hinoki)...

Walking along the Higashiyama path, we embraced the emptiness and chaos of the forest with our bodies, and we ingested paradoxical recipes containing both dominant and dominated species, creating impossible realities.



Paradoxical recipe n°1
Fresh watercress and Sugi (cedar) mead
.
In the chaos
body workshop, 7’00
.
Paradoxical recipe n°2
Kuzu and Sugi jelly
.
Facing emptiness
Throw a seed and make a wish
.
Paradoxical recipe n°3
Dried Kaki, Hinoki (cypress) tea
.
A non-planned chinese tea ceremony
was generously performed by one of the hikers, Harry Lee.




This project has been developed during my residency stay at Villa Kujoyama in 2021, with the support of Bettencourt Schueller Foundation and Institut français