The fifth chapter: Becomings, from “a long listening journey of a Possible thiStory especially of Japanese & Dutch & something more” series, 2017 Courtesy: Yuka Tsuruno Gallery, Tokyo

In 1669, Arnoldus Montanus’s Atlas Japannensis—the first systematic account of Japanese culture and history to appear in the West—was published in Amsterdam. Artist mamoru began researching this book in 2014 and creating a new work that attempts to “graft” this highly imaginative foreign depiction of Japan onto the contemporary world. The resulting “a long listening journey” that began in a single book leads viewers through deeply connected places such as Batavia (present-day Jakarta) during the era of the Dutch East India Company in the 17th century, and during World War II, when both Japan and Holland were directly involved with it, and presents fragments of the multiple possible histories that continue to reverberate through these places. Mamoru weaves together sounds, images, and words based on collaborations with the diverse people he encountered in these places. How, the artist asks, does the invisible space-time continuum build into a single picture?