Higashiyama-Fontainbleau
in the trilogy Higashiyama, 
sensorial walks for 10 hikers

withAlex Balgiu, Misa Murata
2021
in Kyoto, JP
Photo/video Daisuke Taskashige



A gustatory and cinematographic walk in Higashiyama forest, orchestrated with Alexandru Blagiu and his Fontainebleau hiking guide (1935), and Misa Murata, and her stories of local plants. Recently arrived in Japan, Alex and I walked through Higashiyama with our cultural references, as a tool naturally present in one who discovers the unknown. We invited Misa Murata, a specialist in medicinal specialist in medicinal plants, in our Fontainebleau and asked her to asked her to guide us in Higashiyama.
               
So we perceived together rocks, trees, views of Paris, and perspectives on Kyoto.

With a group of ten hikers, we walked through this
this duplicated space, to cross this place, and let it cross us
us: we tasted the plants of the forest; completed the trees with our bodies; watched dance projected on trunks and roots, collected species and created paintings, we followed the guide Alex, and met Misa's plants.
 
In the background, we have established through this first
a system, a method, or a composition of moments, which will be repeated in the two other hikes: walking, reading and listening, discussing, composing the landscape with one's body, to taste.







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