NEW SHELTER?
公衆トイレという空間は、公に開かれた私的空間ということもあり本来の公衆衛生的機能を超えて様々な欲望の実践の場所として利用されています。例えば、トイレで排泄をしながら携帯をいじったり。新入社員が一人で昼ご飯を食べているのを同僚に隠すためにトイレで食事をしたり。SNSに投稿するようにトイレの壁に落書きをしたり。或いは、ゲイカルチャーでの所謂クルージングが行われたり。昨今の監視社会で欲望を秘密裏に且つ自由に出せる公衆トイレは現代の視線から逃れることのできるシェルターと言えるかもしれません。また、そこには未だ十分に分析検証されていない人々の営みがあります。
本作品は、カメラを通じて「視覚的に」、清掃を通じて「触覚的に」他者の痕跡と戯れるパフォーマンス、ドキュメンタリーであり、公衆トイレに残った他者の行動の痕跡から現代社会を読み解く試みです。パフォーマンスとしてのトイレ清掃は一見すると慈善事業のように思われるかもしれませんがそれは見かけであり、覗き込むという写真的欲望と痕迹に触れ他者と関係する欲望から立ち上がる衝動によって実施されます。私にとってトイレ清掃は一種のグラフィティ行為なのです。
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The public restroom is a peculiar space—open to everyone, yet deeply private in nature.
Beyond its original function as a site for public hygiene, it has long served as a space for the quiet enactment of various desires.
Beyond its original function as a site for public hygiene, it has long served as a space for the quiet enactment of various desires.
Using a smartphone while relieving oneself.
Eating lunch in a stall to avoid being seen by colleagues.
Leaving graffiti on the wall as if posting on social media.
Or, in some cases, participating in cruising within gay culture.
Eating lunch in a stall to avoid being seen by colleagues.
Leaving graffiti on the wall as if posting on social media.
Or, in some cases, participating in cruising within gay culture.
In today’s surveillance society, the public restroom may be one of the few remaining shelters—
a place where desire can be expressed secretly, yet freely.
Within this space lie forms of human activity that remain under-examined and under-theorized.
a place where desire can be expressed secretly, yet freely.
Within this space lie forms of human activity that remain under-examined and under-theorized.
This work is a performance and documentary piece that engages with the traces of others—visually, through the camera, and tactilely, through acts of cleaning.
By encountering what remains in the restroom—objects, gestures, residues—the project attempts to decipher the structures of contemporary society.
By encountering what remains in the restroom—objects, gestures, residues—the project attempts to decipher the structures of contemporary society.
The cleaning itself may appear, at first glance, to be an act of social service.
But that appearance is misleading.
But that appearance is misleading.
It is driven by a photographic urge to look,
and by a desire to touch the marks left behind—to connect with others through their traces.
and by a desire to touch the marks left behind—to connect with others through their traces.
For me, cleaning the restroom is a form of graffiti—
a performative response to what someone else has already inscribed.
a performative response to what someone else has already inscribed.