An artist makes context,
and context makes the artist.

I’ve seen Toshiki Okada’s works several times before in Japan and been affected by his works and words a lot. Last weekend I watched “God Bless Baseball” after not having seen an Okada-performance for 4 years.

What I felt was…
>very clever, high quality,
>’international’,
>understandable (nearly equal too explanatory),
>seems to be liked in Europe (It’s my prejudice, maybe!).

I really enjoyed the performance but, at the same time, I felt lonesome a bit because it was fairly good. I mean, in my view, this production relies less on how the actors perform on the stage. With a well-turned structure of the script or a smart concept “God Bless Baseball”, for me, seemed to be able to stand alone without performing; although, of course, it was realized by actors and they were all quite good.

This work of Takeshi Okada, for me, also differs from previous ones that I have seen. Now, he is far from what I want to call ‘domestic Japanese’. In the research atelier Our Common Futures Tamiko Ouki – the producer of “God Bless Baseball” – said that Okada was happy to be free from taking an universal audience into account when staging this performance. However, I felt so much regard in it for an audience not sharing the context. Certainly, it is a good thing to be considerate of others, but in this case I’m not agreeing. In the research atelier much was discussed as well about in what way performances represent or talk about one’s own country and how “God Bless Baseball” does exactly that. This feeling is far from mine.
So I wonder: Even though living in an island like Japan, will I loose the sense of my own country someday? I am a little bit afraid of it. So, for the future, I will be considering thoughtfully to what kind of audience or field I want to aim at with my works as an artist; and at the same time I will be reflecting: By which audience or field am I wanted for what reasons?

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