“HIKU”, by Eric Minh Cuong Castaing & Anne-Sophie Turion

In “HIKU,” a piece developed by Anne-Sophie Turion & Eric Minh Cuong Castaing following their residency at Villa Kujoyama, three hikikomori/performers—people who have experienced severe social withdrawal and are in the process of resocialization—remotely control robots from their own bedrooms, appearing on stage through these avatars. The performance space is completely flat, with audience members seated on the ground, and videos of their past and present, activities and emotional landscapes, strangely but smoothly coexisting with these robots as surrogate beings for the performers. Eventually, through a dialogue mediated by a performer who also acts as an interpreter, the hikikomori draw the audience into the center of their intimate world.