First Trip to Bologna 1978 / Last Trip to Venice 1985
in collaboration with Chose Commune
This is the story of Seiichi and Christine. One day, in a certain place, a woman and a man who had lived completely different lives until that moment meet. They fall in love, get married, and eventually have a child. Slowly but surely, dark clouds gather and disappear on the path of a family. Both are aware that the shadow is growing thicker day by day, but as they continue to pursue their respective goals, they have already come to live in a different world where they cannot stop to talk about their lives and deepen their understanding of each other.
One day, the life they’ve been leading ends abruptly. The woman’s suicide is the ultimate expression of her own will. The woman dominated the spiritual world for the rest of the man’s life through her death. The man was intent on uncovering the circumstances that led to the unhappy ending, using the photographs recorded during the seven years they had spent together as clues. And this search for an impossible answer is still going on, 37 years after the woman’s death.
This exhibition features a ‘travel story’ created by Seiichi based on images of scenes from a film that documented the first few days of his and Christine’s trip to Bologna, as well as photographs documenting their last trip to Venice. Displaying the harshness of fate and the joy of living at the same time, Seiichi attempts to express the ‘uncertainty’ that characterises human life. With a strong will to give the protagonist of sadness and sorrow the opportunity to stand on the ‘stage’ that she must have wanted.
