Simply Gathering, Waiting for Spring

aaploit presents Simply Gathering, Waiting for Spring, a performance by Nishimoto Haruka, on view from February 17 through March 5, 2023. Nishimoto studied performing arts at Kyoto University of Art and Design (now Kyoto University of the Arts) and pursued contemporary art in the graduate program, developing her practice as "audience theory." This exhibition restages performances she has presented in Kyoto, Saitama, and Shiga.

Nishimoto writes performance scripts and articulates the world as the artist perceives it. In the actual performance, the relationship between performer and audience seems to flip—or to blend—producing an uncanny sensation. How each of us engages with the world: the artist observes this. What emerges is a relationship inverse to conventional theater. Yet the performance Nishimoto presents does not demand commitment from the audience. How much of the script's world one shares is left entirely to the viewer.

This is a participatory exhibition. A kotatsu will be placed in the gallery. The artist's presence is random. Whether to engage actively or to observe from a distance—everything is entrusted to the viewer. Something seems about to happen, yet time passes as though nothing is.

The gallery's neighborhood of Edogawabashi has cherry blossom viewing along the Kanda River. Harimizaka in Myōgadani is also known for its blossoms, and in Iidabashi, cherry trees overflow along a canal that was once a moat in the Edo period. The exhibition dates are still too early for cherry blossoms, but we hope visitors will think of spring while warming themselves at aaploit.

For inquiries regarding the exhibition and works, please contact info@aaploit.com.