Pre-talk: Eraser Mountain - The Performance, The Stage, and Performative Object Collection for the Seoul Performance
Date & Time: November 5, 2025 (Wed) 19:00-20:30
Title: Eraser Mountain - The Performance, The Stage, and Performative Object Collection for the Seoul Performance
Speakers: Toshiki Okada, Teppei Kaneuji, elbow(Choi Youngwon, Choi Gwuiwoong, Lee Kiseok, Kim Minju), Eimei Kaneyama
Language: Korean/Japanese (Sequential Interpretation)
Admission: Free (Advance Reservation Required)
"Is it possible to create theater that is not directed to the audience?"
Devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011, the city of Rikuzentakata in Iwate Prefecture is now undergoing immense reconstruction to elevate the area as a countermeasure against future tsunami waves. The use of local rocks to raise the land more than ten meters higher has led to severe damage on surrounding mountains. Witnessing this landscape that had been so rapidly and artificially changed in 2017, Toshiki Okada started to conceive a new work in which he would raise doubts about the so-called criteria or measures that humans use.
How was the stage of Eraser Mountain conceived? How were the more than 300 objects that make up the stage collected, and what stories do they hold? And when this performance is presented in another city, how should the stage props be assembled?
This gathering shares the process and results of collecting objects for the Seoul performance over several months. Playwright/director Toshiki Okada, visual artist Teppei Kaneuji, and various Korean participants come together to discuss how the core concepts of "half-transparency" and the relationship between "objects-humans" newly configured the stage in the Korean context.
This experimental process, which chose recycling and the emergence of relationships between objects and collectors instead of mass purchasing and disposal, questions another possibility for sustainable performance production.
Program (90 minutes total)
Part 1. About the Work (15 min) - Toshiki Okada
Creative background of Eraser Mountain, the relationship between objects and humans beyond anthropocentrism, the concept of "half-transparency"
Part 2. About the Stage (15 min) - Teppei Kaneuji
Collage methodology for 300 objects, sculpture theater and estranged objects, the mashing up of territories on stage
Part 3. Reconstruction in Korea (30 min) - Seoul Stage Object Collection Participants (Elbow, Eimei Kaneyama)
Sustainable object collection process, relationship formation and verbalization between objects and participants
Part 4. Panel Discussion (15 min) - All Speakers
Part 5. Dialogue with Audience (15 min)
Stage Props for Seoul Performance Collection with elbow and Eimei Kaneyama
Stage Props for Seoul Performance Supported by IKEA Korea
