MIDORI MITAMURA

About "Message from someone living faraway"

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  In the winter of 2005 that was when I was living in Helsinki, I made this artwork for the people in Japan. Each visitor received a letter from me and visited a small antique bookshop "ICHIRO" in Tokyo to tell a message written in the letter from me. In the envelope, a half-cut photo print was also enclosed. The visitor spoke the message to the shopkeeper, and then the shopkeeper handed one paperback to the visitor. When the visitor opened that book, the visitor found a phrase with a bookmark on the page. That was obviously the message they just spoke to the shopkeeper. The visitor noticed the bookmark in the book was another half piece of the pair enclosed in the envelope. And then, one image appeared by matching up to the pair as exceeding time and distance. Visitors could take out those books which were my collections. Finally, this artwork was completed. How did visitors feel on the way to the bookshop to bring a message? Only visitors know that. Writing letters with an unpracticed hand that already had lost the callus of fingers, I was absorbed into the pleasure by conveying my words from a foreign country to my native country. For us who share the native language in where we were born and raised, using our language is a big pleasure impressing us deeply. And we can enjoy every word, not only for conversation and communication. Therefore books are presents from the past for us. When we read a book, we can face the author who lives in the past. Moreover, we can share the time at the different time-axis between us and someone who had read it once. I want to add a little premium to those presents and put them out from the box where they had been asleep. Wishing my work will color a moment of someone's life, as transcending time and space.