ZONE was a collaboration
between the Japanese National Theatre and Noism in the spring of 2009. The
concept of a 'ZONE of professions' was
established by artistic director Jo Kanamori and was presented in three pieces
called 'academic / nomadic / physic'.
'nomadic' was the opposite of 'academic'. It was not descriptive and did not
belong to anytime or anywhere. One thousand 8m strings of chain created a
scenery of movement and of dynamic particles of lights – a ‘space of
phenomenon’. Performers were given a certain look, unrecognisable as any
particular ethnicity. The music and costumes were also a collective, unbalanced
collage of ethnicities. These particular constructs enabled the contradiction
of the expression of a space without time or place. A point of light gave the
illusion of stage. This 'particle of light' was understood as a point in space
which could, through projection or reflection, become visible or invisible.
This meant that space was not materialised as fixed or constant. Instead space
was the uncertain expression of the 'nomadic' - an absence of presence that
could reinstate the position of the particle as scenarios in the space of
phenomenon.