* This article has been edited and reconstructed based on the report submitted to the Kawamura Foundation for the Promotion of Culture and Arts.
The Apocalypse of Women
[Application project]
The Apocalypse of Women
[Applicant]
Kyun-Chome
[Subsidy] 40万円
[Overview]
Kyun-Chome directed The Apocalypse of Women with the Socially Engaged Art Support Grant. In this project, the artist unit conducted interviews with women under different circumstances and weaved a story of the “end of the world” based on those women’s fears and anxieties. This “end of the world” pictured by those women was eventually adapted into art/play to be distributed so that the audience could participate remotely.
In the play, cookies in a black box are sent to the audience, and a piece of paper with a phone number comes out from inside. By calling the number, the audience can access the story of The Apocalypse of Women. The project took this distribution style to respond to the social situation of difficulty in transportation due to the new coronavirus. It was also to create a format to deliver the work to those who could not travel far or afford to see the play. Furthermore, the artists wanted to avoid social media and video streaming services, which have become the major battleground for misogyny.
[Held / Implemented / Announced]
●The Apocalypse of Women (Theater Commons Tokyo ’22)
February 19 (Sat) - 27 (Sun), 2022
<Number of participants>
Approx. 600 (distribution)
<Venues>
Mailing, Theater Commons Tokyo ’22 program venues (Minato-ku, Tokyo) (Organizer: Theater Commons Tokyo Executive Committee and others)
[Outcome]
We were able to cultivate a new direction by challenging a work that looked towards others, society, and socially engaged art, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic which made collaborative production not easy to happen. We also carefully considered the essence of "listening to others" in the creation of our work. Thus, we did not only “request specific people to interview and have a conversation with” but also visited various places and listened to those who happened to start talking around us (without noticing us). We witnessed many women laughing at their own circumstances, saying, “But there is nothing I can do about it.” This resignation seemed to be a feeling resulting from society trying to make them give up.
Kyun-Chome The Apocalypse of Women (from the “Theater Commons Tokyo ’22”)
https://theatercommons.tokyo/program/kyun-chome/