“Asking the Repentistas – Peneira & Sonhador – to remix my octopus works” by Shimabuku

2006 · BR · colour · 17’

In this Shimabuku’s videowork, the artwork becomes a facilitator for an interaction between different cultures and interpretations.

Upon participating in the São Paulo Biennale, I was asked to exhibit past video work along with new work. Subtitling in Portuguese was mandatory for works on video, but when I learned that a considerable number of Brazilians were unable to read, it made no sense to subtitle my work.

There was a pair of street performers near the residency I stayed in São Paulo who were always improvising in a sort of rap routine that I regularly stopped to listen to as I became a big fan of them, the repentistas, Peneira e Sonhador, to whom I eventually shared my video and asked for them to remix the “subtitles” by way of their songs.

The artist

Born in Kobe, Japan 1969 Lives in Naha, Japan. After living in Berlin, Germany for 12 years, Shimabuku moved to Naha, Okinawa, Japan in 2016 where he is currently based.

From the beginning of the 1990s, he has travelled to various places in Japan and overseas, creating performances and installations that consider the daily lives and cultures of people he encounters, as well as new forms of communication. He also works in a diverse range of media including sculpture, film and photography. Full of poetic sentiment and humor while also inspiring people in metaphorical ways, his style has gained a worldwide reputation.