Matsufusa｜"Japanese Art Sound Archive—Kosai Hori's "Report Vol.2" 1973"
An exhibition in Nagoya re-presented Kosai Hori's 1973 performance piece "Report Vol.2," re-evaluating its exploration of sound and documentation.Summary
The exhibition "Japanese Art Sound Archive—Kosai Hori's 'Report Vol.2' 1973" held at Jingu 339 in Nagoya was a re-presentation of Kosai Hori's performance work "Report Vol.2" originally shown at Tamura Gallery in 1973. Hori created several performance series in the 1970s; "Report Vol.2" involved six artists recording themselves vocalizing characters they saw en route to the venue. After playing the audio, they mapped their routes on a map and subsequently transcribed the words heard from the recordings onto cards. The 2025 exhibition featured photographs documenting this entire process, including 162 cards and color charts. The work is praised for harmonizing external and autonomous elements to create a record of the city, exploring the human being as a recording device. The article notes the purified methodology of Vol.2, contrasting it with the more personal elements of Vol.1 and Vol.3, and connects Hori's attempt to move beyond the assertion of modern ego to contemporary attitudes seen in figures like Takuma Nakahira. The Japanese Art Sound Archive continues to re-examine such pioneering works through the lens of sound, revealing connections and highlighting their enduring importance.
(Source：artscape)