Calimero | shingoyoshida

CALIMERO

FILM | PHOTOGRAPHY

02.August.2022

55.92 273°N 21.68140°E
Plunge Lithuania

  English:

Calimero is a film work documenting the thoughts, acts of mourning, and questions of life that accompanied the burial of a sculpture created as an invited contribution to THE ARTWORKS CEMETERY, a project by Lithuanian conceptual artist Juozas Laivys.

The project proposes the concept of an “artworks cemetery,” in which artists take responsibility for the death and mourning of their own works through the act of burial.

During my stay at his family’s home—a place largely sustained through self-sufficiency—I used the bones of chickens, rabbits, and other animals raised there for food. These bones were reassembled into a sculptural form representing an animal as a new state of rebirth, created with a sense of gratitude.
The acts of making and burying the sculpture in this work are connected to the Buddhist concept of reincarnation.
They constitute a modest gesture of mourning toward lives and artworks that are continually lost within a contemporary society driven by cycles of consumption and production.

The title Calimero derives from a black chick character once popular in Italy, portrayed as a figure who possesses only a weak and small voice within an unjust society, yet continues to hold the truth.
The starting point of this work lies in mourning a black chick that was born in a garden and died shortly thereafter, and was buried together with the sculpture.
As his family lived under the former Soviet Union and was unfamiliar with this character, this fact itself is presented as one instance of cultural intersection within the work.

Français:

Calimero est une œuvre film qui documente les pensées, les gestes de deuil et les questions liées à la vie ayant accompagné l’enterrement d’une sculpture réalisée dans le cadre d’une invitation au projet THE ARTWORKS CEMETERY, initié par l’artiste conceptuel lituanien Juozas Laivys.

Ce projet propose le concept d’un « cimetière des œuvres », dans lequel les artistes assument la mort et le deuil de leurs propres créations à travers l’acte de l’enterrement.

Lors de mon séjour chez sa famille — dans un lieu largement fondé sur l’autosuffisance — j’ai utilisé les os de poules, de lapins et d’autres animaux élevés sur place pour l’alimentation. Ces os ont été réassemblés en une forme sculpturale représentant un animal comme un nouvel état de renaissance, réalisée dans un sentiment de gratitude.
Les actes de fabrication et d’enterrement de la sculpture dans cette œuvre sont liés au concept bouddhique de la réincarnation.
Ils constituent un geste modeste de deuil à l’égard des vies et des œuvres continuellement perdues au sein d’une société contemporaine régie par des cycles de consommation et de production.

Le titre Calimero fait référence à un personnage de dessin animé — un poussin noir autrefois populaire en Italie — représenté comme une figure dotée d’une voix faible et minuscule dans une société injuste, tout en portant la vérité.
Le point de départ de cette œuvre réside dans le deuil d’un poussin noir né dans un jardin et mort peu après, puis enterré avec la sculpture.
La famille de l’artiste ayant vécu sous l’ancienne Union soviétique et n’ayant pas connu ce personnage, ce fait est présenté comme un exemple de croisement culturel au sein de l’œuvre.

 日本語:

本作《Calimero》は、リトアニアのコンセプチュアル・アーティスト、Juozas Laivys によるプロジェクト「THE ARTWORKS CEMETERY」への招待参加作品として制作された彫刻を埋葬するまでの思いや弔い、そして生命についての問いを記録した映像作品である。

本プロジェクトは、アーティストが自らの作品を埋葬する行為を通して、作品の死と弔いを引き受ける「作品の墓地」という概念を提示している。

私は、彼の家族の家で過ごした際に出会った、ほぼ自給自足で営まれているその場所で飼われていた食用のニワトリやウサギ、その他の動物の骨を用い、それらを再構成し、感謝の気持ちを込めて、新たな生まれ変わりとしての動物の形を持つ彫刻を制作した。
本作における制作と埋葬の行為は、仏教における輪廻転生の考え方とも接続している。
それは、消費と生産を繰り返す現代において失われていく生命や作品に対する、ささやかな弔いの行為である。

《Calimero》というタイトルは、かつてイタリアで親しまれていた、不公平な社会の中で弱く小さな声しか持たないが、真実を抱え続ける存在として描かれた、黒いひよこのアニメキャラクターに由来する。
庭で生まれ、間もなく死んでしまった黒いひよこを悼み、この彫刻と共に埋葬したことが、本作の出発点となっている。
なお、彼の家族はかつてソビエト連邦下に生きていたため、このキャラクターの存在を知らなかったが、その事実もまた、本作における一つの文化的な交差として示されている。

MENO KŪRINIŲ KAPINĖS - THE ARTWORKS CEMETERY

Project by Juozas Laivys
"Cemetery caretaker J. Laivys: "I am creating the life of an artist who does not create"

IDEOLOGICAL PART

On the basis of freedom, justice and peace in the world, respecting the dignity of artists and their works, without any restrictions on sex, race, nationality or religion, we announce the following regulations of the Artworks Cemetery (hereinafter “AC”), which underpin
the basic guidelines for our work.
In order to ensure smooth integration of artworks into culture, we provide them with
the opportunity to create and change, and recognize the right of artworks to personal life and death.
In the global world, the excessive use of creativity, as an adjective of creation, manifests itself in at least two side effects: first, it acts as a stimulant that causes a premature birth effect, and secondly, there are many infertile artists who use the techniques of artificial insemination. This results in the artworks that are physically weak and in a very poor state. These artworks live for a very short time, so they need to be buried. It is likely

that the demand for the AC will only increase in the future.
In certain cases the abundance of premature creation as a bacterial infection affects

more mature creative manifestations, which due to their age have a tendency to die.

Therefore, the AC welcomes artworks that have died in any way.
The separation of the author from the artwork is based on the undisputed right of

the artwork to personal life and death. The AC is perceived as an opportunity for all artists respectfully to say goodbye to their creations in this way promoting a clean and unpolluted world of conscious creators.
The foresight of the resurrection of an artwork entails the development of metaphysical ideological lines and the respect of all attitudes and confessions as well as their discrepancies.