"Diary of Eve’s Land", 2023–2025, Video (Color, Sound) © Kyoko Kasuya, courtesy of MEM, Tokyo
TITLE_NAME :
Kyoko Kasuya, "Diary of Eve’s Land"
30/01/2025 - 16/02/2025
MEM
NADiff A/P/A/R/T 3F,
1-18-4, Ebisu,
150–0013 Tokyo
www.mem-inc.jp
"Diary of Eve’s Land" draws from a series of video interviews Kyoko Kasuya conducted in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in 2023. Through social media, she invited women to participate in the project, ultimately bringing together five individuals from diverse backgrounds: a doctor, a psychologist, a medical student, an IT professional, and an immigrant studying at an online university. Against the backdrop of Saudi Arabia’s sweeping societal transformation under the Vision 2030 government initiative, the work captures candid testimonies and everyday footage of women navigating the tensions between societal expectations and their personal aspirations. Kyoko Kasuya is a visual artist and filmmaker based in Paris. Originally from Japan, she studied African American literature at Aoyama Gakuin University. After a brief stint as a company employee, she moved to France, where she earned a Master of Fine Arts from the Montpellier School of Fine Arts in 2013. The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster marked a pivotal shift in her practice. Urged by her father to remain in France, she began producing works that reexamined her identity through the lens of society and history. Her work engages deeply with archival research, particularly personal diaries and writings left by unknown individuals, challenging conventional historical narratives and emphasizing the significance of shared experiences. Kasuya grew up listening to firsthand accounts from her grandfather about World War II. This personal connection later led her to engage with the diaries of student soldiers like Hachirō Sasaki and Tokumitsu Takushima, whose writings were compiled in "Listen to the Voices From the Sea (Kike Wadatsumi no Koe)". These texts were foundational for her films "Listen to the Voices of the Sea" (2019) and "Silence Bleu" (2022), screened in Brussels and Prague. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kasuya joined The Crown Letter, an international collective of women artists creating and sharing works on issues related to women. Her work was also featured in "KG+ KYOTOGRAPHIE".
30/01/2025 - 16/02/2025
MEM
NADiff A/P/A/R/T 3F,
1-18-4, Ebisu,
150–0013 Tokyo
www.mem-inc.jp
"Diary of Eve’s Land" draws from a series of video interviews Kyoko Kasuya conducted in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, in 2023. Through social media, she invited women to participate in the project, ultimately bringing together five individuals from diverse backgrounds: a doctor, a psychologist, a medical student, an IT professional, and an immigrant studying at an online university. Against the backdrop of Saudi Arabia’s sweeping societal transformation under the Vision 2030 government initiative, the work captures candid testimonies and everyday footage of women navigating the tensions between societal expectations and their personal aspirations. Kyoko Kasuya is a visual artist and filmmaker based in Paris. Originally from Japan, she studied African American literature at Aoyama Gakuin University. After a brief stint as a company employee, she moved to France, where she earned a Master of Fine Arts from the Montpellier School of Fine Arts in 2013. The 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster marked a pivotal shift in her practice. Urged by her father to remain in France, she began producing works that reexamined her identity through the lens of society and history. Her work engages deeply with archival research, particularly personal diaries and writings left by unknown individuals, challenging conventional historical narratives and emphasizing the significance of shared experiences. Kasuya grew up listening to firsthand accounts from her grandfather about World War II. This personal connection later led her to engage with the diaries of student soldiers like Hachirō Sasaki and Tokumitsu Takushima, whose writings were compiled in "Listen to the Voices From the Sea (Kike Wadatsumi no Koe)". These texts were foundational for her films "Listen to the Voices of the Sea" (2019) and "Silence Bleu" (2022), screened in Brussels and Prague. During the COVID-19 pandemic, Kasuya joined The Crown Letter, an international collective of women artists creating and sharing works on issues related to women. Her work was also featured in "KG+ KYOTOGRAPHIE".