Takashi Ito:
Distant Voices
Takashi Ito:
Distant Voices
This programme is exclusively available to Festival Pass and Day Pass holders. Admission is limited and offered on a first-come, first-served basis.
Takashi Ito’s second feature-length film Distant Voices continues his study of the subconscious perception of space. Holding cameras, two young women wander through a field of withered sunflowers and a derelict public-housing complex. One pursues strange spectacles while the other photographs a black dress in different locations. Their paths—and their very selves—intertwine in ominous silence, dissolving the boundary between reality and the surreal.
Moving away from the formal abstraction of his earlier works, Ito meditates on the act of creation through the deliberate gaze of a lens. The film portrays navigating space with a camera as a liminal state in which image-making becomes an otherworldly experience for the artist alone.
A post-screening talk with the artist will be held in Japanese. Consecutive interpretation in English will be available.
Takashi Ito. Distant Voices, 2024. Photo: Courtesy of Daguerreo Press, Inc.
Takashi Ito. Distant Voices, 2024. Photo: Courtesy of Daguerreo Press, Inc.
Takashi Ito. Distant Voices, 2024. Photo: Courtesy of Daguerreo Press, Inc.
Takashi Ito. Distant Voices, 2024. Photo: Courtesy of Daguerreo Press, Inc.
Takashi Ito. Distant Voices, 2024. Photo: Courtesy of Daguerreo Press, Inc.
Takashi Ito. Distant Voices, 2024. Photo: Courtesy of Daguerreo Press, Inc.
Takashi Ito. Distant Voices, 2024. Photo: Courtesy of Daguerreo Press, Inc.
Takashi Ito. Distant Voices, 2024. Photo: Courtesy of Daguerreo Press, Inc.
About the Artist
Takashi Ito (b. 1956, Japanese) is a defining figure in Japanese experimental film. A protégé of film director and video artist Toshio Matsumoto, Ito is best known for his deconstruction of the moving image through single-frame manipulation. His work utilises stop-motion techniques and long exposures to fracture time and space, showcasing a technical intricacy that challenges the limits of visual perception. His seminal film, Spacy (1981), traps the viewer in a nightmarish loop that folds a school gymnasium into itself with complex editing and rephotography. His recent ventures into feature-length films, Toward Zero (2021) and Distant Voices (2024), further his exploration of hauntology and memory through film.
Portrait of Takashi Ito. Photo: Courtesy of the artist
Image at top: Takashi Ito. Distant Voices, 2024. Photo: Courtesy of Daguerreo Press, Inc.