WE ARE THE HOUSE

Last year, pianist and visual artist Tomoko Mukaiyama presented the inspiring and exploratory WE ARE THE HOUSE: Salon. The project has now evolved into a collective performance in which art and social urgency converge. At the heart of WE ARE THE HOUSE is the work of Rebecca Gomperts, physician and activist, who has long been committed to ensuring global access to abortion care, challenging stigma, and defending the fundamental right to make decisions about one’s own body.

During a ten-day Salon in Kyoto last June, Gomperts and others came together to explore the fundamental right to bodily autonomy. It became an intensive exchange between artists, thinkers, and creators on bodily autonomy and the question of who holds authority over it. Out of these encounters came a powerful statement: 'My body is mine'. What may seem self-evident – the notion that your body belongs to you – proves, in reality, to be fragile. Laws, political decisions and social institutions can deeply affect personal freedom. It is precisely within this tension between autonomy and control that the performance finds its urgency.

Visitors move freely through a three-part experience in which different art forms intersect and amplify one another. You enter a landscape of spatial installations and video by Reinier van Brummelen, hear new music by Yannis Kyriakides, encounter performances by Just van Bommel, and attend a lecture-performance by Yuri Yamada. The elements respond to one another, forming a continuous whole — a layered reflection on the body as both a personal and a political space.