MES, セイ/SE-I/SAY
World Premiere

Presented by MOCA and the National Center for Art Research as part of JUMP: Global Collaboration Program for Emerging Artists and Curators from Japan.

Tokyo-based artist duo MES (Arai Takeru and Tanikawa Kanae, both b. 1991) present the premiere of their first durational performance installation,セイ/SE-I/SAY (2027). Informed by their political activism and background in club culture, MES’s practice foregrounds heat and light-based media alongside live performance with lasers, candles, and thermographic imaging all prominent within their work

セイ/SE-I/SAY explores the solidarity between nascent Japanese and American anarchist movements in the early 20th century. This multifaceted project builds on MES’s ongoing research into formative anarchist theorists including American writer and activist Emma Goldman (1869-1940) and Shūsui Kōtoku (1871-1911), a prominent Japanese socialist who traveled to California in 1905 and is credited with bringing anarchism to Japan before he was executed following the infamous High Treason Incident that saw twelve leftist leaders sentenced to death for conspiracy to murder the Emperor in what is now considered an example of targeted repression.

Drawing attention to the protests among American scholars in the wake of Kōtoku’s execution and the subsequent suppression of anti-establishment thought throughout Japan, MES uses their own text together with the words of Kōtoku, Goldman, and others to evoke this history of mutual resistance. Integrating video, thermographic imaging, site specific soundscapes, and a custom confetti installation within the composition of their multi-week performance, MES considers how the trans-pacific exchange of radical ideologies in the first decades of the 20th century relates to our contemporary ideas of activism and protest.

東京を拠点に活動するアーティストデュオMES（新井健 1991-, 谷川果菜絵 1991-）による新作パフォーマンス・インスタレーション《セイ／SE-I／SAY》を世界初公開します。

MESは、クラブカルチャーやアクティヴィスムを背景に、レーザーや蝋燭、サーモグラフィーといった光や熱を伴うメディウムを駆使したパフォーマンスやインスタレーションを発表してきました。

本作は、20世紀初頭の日米のアナーキストたちによる、国境を越えた連帯の歴史を参照しています。1911年、日本では「大逆事件」として知られる思想弾圧事件により、ジャーナリストの幸徳秋水（1871-1911）らが処刑されました。この事件に対して、エマ・ゴールドマン（1869-1940）をはじめとするアメリカのアナーキストや社会主義者たちは、抗議の声を上げました。

MESは会期中Warehouseに滞在し、長時間にわたるパフォーマンスを展開します。幸徳やゴールドマンらの言葉、MES自身の声、身体の熱を映し出すサーモグラフィー映像、そして紙吹雪が舞う祝祭的な演出を通じて、連帯と抵抗の歴史を現代に呼び起こします。

本企画は、MOCAと国立アートリサーチセンター（NCAR）による「JUMP アーティスト＋キュレーター国際協働プログラム」の一環として実施されます。

Artist Bios

Takeru Arai (b. Chibua, 1991, lives and works in Tokyo) and Kanae Tanikawa (b. Hokkaido, 1991, lives and works in Tokyo) work together as the artist duo MES, formed in 2015 when they were students at Tokyo University of the Arts. Through artistic activities focused on social issues such as politics, disasters, and gender, they challenge conventional thought and systems from new perspectives. À la dérive between club culture and contemporary art, they stage performances and create installations that sometimes quietly, sometimes intensely illuminate the darkness of the world through light and heat. Employing collaborative, intersectional approaches, their practice involves constant experimentation and exploration in stage directing, performing, and organizing, as can be seen in the REVOLIC—Revolution Holic party they hosted.

MES, セイ/SE-I/SAY is organized by Alex Sloane, Associate Curator, The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles and Mari Tsukamoto, Curator, The Museum of Art, Kochi and is produced by Amelia Charter, Producer of Performance and Programs, The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles.

MES, セイ/SE-I/SAY is presented at MOCA as part of Wonmi’s WAREHOUSE Programs.