Screen as Psyche, or Intensities for Damaged Eyes: Selected Works by Toshio Matsumoto - Events - e-flux 2025/04/23, 1:00 PM
e -?ux Events
Still from Toshio Matsumoto’s Engram (Kioku Konseki), <R[A.
Screen as Psyche, or Intensities for Date
Damaged Eyes: Selected Works by September <=, ?@??, Apm
Toshio Matsumoto
With a video introduction by Julian
Ross
<A? Classon Avenue
Admission starts at $9 Brooklyn, NY <<?@9
USA
We are excited to launch a new season at e-Kux Screening Room with an
evening of selected works by noted Japanese Nlmmaker and critic Toshio
Matsumoto (<R=?–?@<A), screening on Tuesday, September <= at Apm.
Matsumoto was a prominent thinker and pioneer of experimental cinema and
video art in Japan, questioning and pushing the traditions and frontiers of
documentary, avant-garde, and narrative Nlm. Widely known for his queer
masterpiece feature Nlm Funeral Parade of Roses (<RWR), Matsumoto worked in a
variety of genres and styles throughout his artistic career. From his
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Screen as Psyche, or Intensities for Damaged Eyes: Selected Works by Toshio Matsumoto - Events - e-flux 2025/04/23, 1:00 PM
collaborations with the legendary collective Jikken Kobo in the late <R9@s, to his
expressive expanded cinema experiments in the <RW@s, to his radical
appropriation of emerging video technologies in the <RA@s and the <R[@s,
Matsumoto was constantly testing and reinventing the moving-image medium.
In this screening, we are thrilled to showcase rarely seen Matsumoto
experimental Nlms and videos that represent both: his formal explorations of the
Nlm medium, and his witty and humorous commentaries on traditions, society,
politics, and the state of art.
The screening is presented with a video introduction by Julian Ross recorded
especially for the occasion.
With special thanks to Postwar Japan Moving Image Archive (PJMIA) and
Hirofumi Sakamoto.
Films
For the Damaged Right Eye (Tsuburekakatta Migime no Tame ni) | GHIJ, GK
minutes
Using some of the material that later appeared in Funeral Parade of Roses, the
energetic For the Damaged Right Eye incorporates animation and found footage.
The Nlm was Nrst “performed” at the Sogetsu Art Center in <RW[ as a piece of
expanded cinema. The <RW@s represented a watershed moment in Japanese
society. In the Nlm, images of hippies at the discos, Nghts between police and
student protesters, the Kwon Hyi-ro incident, queer culture collide in multiple
layers, documenting <RW[ Japan oas a clash on screen. At the premiere, strobes
placed around the screen were lit at the end of the screening. Kuniharu Akiyama,
a music critic, composed a musique concrète-like soundtrack based on popular
songs.
Metastasis (Shinchintaisha), GHLG, J minutes
Metastasis is a pioneering video-art piece in which footage of a toilet seat
reminiscent of Marcel Duchamp’s Fountain is processed electronically by a
medical imaging device (an electrocolor processor), altering the color is as the
light gradation in the image changed. Matsumoto operated the equipment in line
with the storyboard, and the visuals shown on the cathode ray monitor were
captured on <Wmm Nlm. Toshi Ichiyanagi, a contemporary musician, wrote the
electronic music for the work using a synthesizer.
Mona Lisa, GHLM, M minutes
Matsumoto created this work by electronically processing images of the Mona
Lisa using Scanimate, the latest image synthesizer newly added to Jikken Kobo’s
lab . The Nlm references footage from his earlier work Space Projection Ako.
Matsumoto was also directing television commercials at the time and often
experimented with Scanimate. Mona Lisa was screened as part of the video-art
conference Open Circuits held at MoMA in <RAh. The music for the video was
composed by Matsumoto using Scanimate.
Andy Warhol: Re-reproduction (Andy Warhol: Fuku Fukusei), GHLO; KM
minutes
When Andy Warhol came to Japan in <RAh for the opening of the exhibition,
Matsumoto decided to multiply the Ngure of the Pop artist. First, the Ngure of
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Screen as Psyche, or Intensities for Damaged Eyes: Selected Works by Toshio Matsumoto - Events - e-flux 2025/04/23, 1:00 PM
Warhol is photographed using a multilens camera. Next, the footage is projected
onto a screen at varying frame speeds and again re-recorded. Contemporary
musician Joji Yuasa composed a musique concrète-like soundtrack with
Warhol’s voice.
Everything Visible is Empty (Shiki Soku Ze Ku), GHLS, L minutes
Siki Soku Ze Ku or Everything Visible Is Empty is a Japanese Buddhist phrase that
appears in the Heart Sutra. The piece attempts to express the physical
sensations of a psychedelic experience. he words of the Heart Sutra Kicker and
repeatedly appear one character at a time in vivid colors. This repetition
increases in intensity over time and guides the audience’s consciousnesses to a
trance-like state, culminating in an image of bright light. Ichiyanagi composed a
musique concrète-like soundtrack for this Nlm.
Phantom (Gemmo), GHLS, GU minutes
Matsumoto pursues a non-logical factor in consciousness. This Nlm expresses
strange colors using infrared Nlm. The ocean, a yoga performance, a woman with
red hair, an eyeball Koating in the city, a mysterious garden… Delusion comes up
and then disappears. Contemporary musician Jo Kondo composed an
instrumental soundtrack for this work.
Atman, GHLS, GG minutes
In Indian philosophy, the notion of the true self is referred to as“tman.” The
camera violently rotates around a Ngure wearing a Japanese hannya mask,
causing acute disorientation in the spectator. This work was shot on <Wmm
infrared Nlm with a grid around the subject. Matsumoto varied the shot size and
exposure parameters. The material was then re-photographed a few frames at a
time using sophisticated calculations. As a result, the images acquired a surreal
colorization. Ichiyanagi used a synthesizer to create the electronic music for the
Nlm.
Engram (Kioku Konseki), GHJL, GG minutes
Since the <R[@s, Matsumoto has focused on image-viewer relations and
narrative falsehoods. This three-part piece takes the viewer into a labyrinthine
“narrative” of photos inside of photos, movies inside of movies, photos inside of
movies, movies inside of photos, and (even) a Nlm director inside a TV set.
Accessibility
–Two Kights of stairs lead up to the building’s front entrance at <A? Classon
Avenue.
–For elevator access, please RSVP to [email protected]. The building has a
freight elevator which leads into the e-Kux omce space. Entrance to the elevator
is nearest to <[@ Classon Ave (a garage door). We have a ramp for the steps
within the space.
–e-Kux has an ADA-compliant bathroom. There are no steps between the
Screening Room and this bathroom.
Category Toshio Matsumoto (<R=?-?@<A) was a Japanese Nlm
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Screen as Psyche, or Intensities for Damaged Eyes: Selected Works by Toshio Matsumoto - Events - e-flux 2025/04/23, 1:00 PM
Film, Avant-Garde director and video artist. In the late <R9@s, Matsumoto
began making works that fused avant-garde and
documentary elements, as well as writing essays on
Subject
Nlm theory. In <RW=, he published The Discovery of Film:
Experimental Film,
The Avant-Garde and Documentary (Eizō no hakken:
Video Art, Japan
Avangyarudo to dokyumentarii, Sanichi-Shobo), which
exerted a strong inKuence on the Japanese Nlm
movement. In the late ’W@s, Matsumoto began to
devote himself to experimental Nlms and expanded
cinema with For the Damaged Right Eye
(Tsuburekakatta migime no tame ni, <RW[). In <RWR, he
directed Funeral Parade of Roses (Bara no sōretsu,
<RWR), a commercial narrative Nlm that exempliNed gay
culture and the turmoil of the era. In <RA@, he served as
general director of the Textile Pavilion at the EXPO’A@ in
Osaka, where he presented Space Projection Ako
(<RA@), a huge multi-projection Nlm work. Matsumoto
subsequently expanded his activities, producing
countless cross-genre works including commercial
narrative Nlms such as Shura (<RA<) and Dogra Magra
(<R[[), experimental Nlms such as Atman (<RA9) and
Engram (Kioku konseki, <R[A), and video artworks such
as Metastasis (Shinchintaisha, <RA<) and Shift (Shift:
Dansō, <R[?). His most recent work, Tōrō Axe (?@@R-
?@<?), was released in ?@<?.
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