video, 5’43, Full HD 2019
On the occasion of the group exhibition Doki Doki at Irrésistible Fraternité in Limoges in January 2019, Kyoko Kasuya has produced her first experimental video entitled Listen to the Voices of the Sea. This work is based on part of the diary of Hachiro Sasaki, a former Japanese student at Tokyo University who became a kamikaze soldier during the Second World War. His diary was published in a book, Kiké Wadatsumi no Koé (Listen to the voices from the sea) in 1949. The artist decided to transpose the story of this Japanese soldier to French territory, in order to offer a more universal reading of the situation of this young man, confronted with the reality of war and struggling against his destiny. As the exhibition was taking place in Limoges, she collaborated with local residents, shooting all the film’s sequences in the town so that the subject would become part of their daily lives.
Synopsis
Henri is a young French man leaving for war. In the last peaceful moment in his life, he confesses his thoughts to his family and friends. He confronts the grim reality while struggling against his own destiny. This film is based on the diary of a Kamikaze Japanese soldier during the Pacific war.