DUMB TYPE WORKS

The S/N installation/performance project begun in 1992, took its title from the “signal/noise ratio” of electronic communications and applied it to the dissonance surrounding contemporary social issues — sex inequality, racial and ethnic minority discrimination, politics of gender, HIV/AIDS and sexualities — in an effort to go beyond the theatrics of art toward activist engagement and community outreach. The conceptual author, director and performer of the work, Teiji Furuhashi, who came out on stage as gay and HIV-positive and died of AIDS-related septicemia on 29 October 1995, characterized S/N as “struggle.”

“What viewers think is art is all too soon forgotten. Such is the throwaway trend in art these last few decades, because people who earnestly interact often suffer. I wanted S/N to be an art counterattack, or rather to take it one step further and shake people up, to poke at the dark corners of each and everyone’s mind. I’m thinking in terms of a struggle to wound such values or else wound oneself.”
—Teiji Furuhashi interview, GQ magazine Jan 1995

《S/N》というタイトルは「シグナル／ノイズ」を意味し、音響機器等で信号に対するノイズの比率を表す「S/N比」に由来する。今日の社会が直面する切実な問題であるジェンダー、エイズ、セクシュアリティなどを軸とし、人種、国籍、あらゆるマイノリティや性差別など、現代社会が抱える諸問題を正面から捉え、パフォーマンスのみならず、周囲のさまざまなコミュニティとの交流・連携といった具体的なアクティヴィズムまでも巻き込み展開された。この作品で、構想・演出、そしてパフォーマーとしても出演し、舞台上で自らゲイでありHIV感染者であることを公表していた古橋悌二は、1995年10月29日エイズによる敗血症のため逝去。古橋の死後も、古橋不在の《S/N》は5カ国・6都市で上演され多くの人々に影響を与え続けた。

Filming: WOWOW-Japan Satellite Broadcasting at SPIRAL, Tokyo in 1995
Edit: Shiro Takatani
撮影｜日本衛星放送WOWOW （1995年 スパイラルホール、東京）
編集｜高谷史郎



1994
March 08 – 13 | “Adelaide Festival” / Adelaide, Australia
November 02 – 05 | Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal / Montréal, Canada
November 10 – 12 | On The Boards – The King Theater / Seattle, USA
December 02 – 04 | “1st Kanagawa Arts Festival,” Landmark Hall / Kanagawa, Japan

1995
January 07 – 16 | Spiral Hall / Tokyo, Japan
March 31 – April 01 | “VISAS Festival International,” Le Manège Scène Nationale, La Luna / Maubeuge, France
April 12 | “Luxembourg 95 – Ville Europeenne de la Culture,” Théâtre d’Esch / Esch, Luxembourg
April 18 | Cankarjev Dom / Ljubljana, Slovenia
April 27 – 28 | Theater im Pumpenhaus – Halle Münsterland / Münster, Germany
May 08 – 10 | “Festival EXIT,” Maison des Arts de Créteil / Créteil, France
May 14 – 19 | “Kunsten Festival des Arts,” Théâtre Varia / Brussels, Belgium
August 31 – September 02 | “Zürcher Theater Spektakle,” Theater Werft / Zurich, Switzerland
September 08 – 09 | “Aarhus Festuge,” Musikhuset / Aarhus, Denmark
October 04 – 06 | “SPIEL.ART,” Muffathalle / Munich, Germany
October 21 – 22 | “Festival Internacional de Artes Cênicas,” Teatro Castro Alves / Salvador, Brazil
October 27 – 29 | “Festival Internacional de Artes Cênicas,” SESC Anchieta / São Paulo, Brazil

1996
January 26 – February 04 | “Tokyo Theater Fair 96,” Tokyo Geijutsu Gekijo / Tokyo, Japan
February 21 – 25 | ALTI / Kyoto, Japan
March 08 – 10 | “Hong Kong Arts Festival,” Hong Kong Culture Centre Studio Theatre / Hong Kong
March 19 – 23 | “New Zealand International Festival of the Arts,” Shed 1 / Wellington, New Zealand
March 29 – 31 | Teatro Central / Sevilla, Spain
April 09 – 11 | “Festival EXIT,” Maison des Arts de Créteil / Créteil, France