Narikama

Umeda Tetsuya

Narikama is a sound-sculpture performance inspired by the ancient Japanese ritual known as Kamanari-shinji. This ritual, with a history of over a thousand years, interprets the rumbling sounds produced between fire and water as divine messages, considered as “signs of a boundary.” Tetsuya Umeda has reinterpreted this ritual as a pure physical phenomenon, translating its underlying ideas into a contemporary context, and has been presenting sound performances in this form for over twenty years. Multiple simple cylinders made from everyday materials resonate with the surrounding environment, creating complex acoustic effects and a unique soundscape in which no two listeners experience exactly the same sound.

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Umeda Tetsuya (Osaka) produces installations that are inspired by and incorporate existing elements found in the environment and circumstances surrounding the exhibition space including its architectural structure. In addition to exhibitions in museums and art institutions, he has produced numerous site-specific works based on the context of both urban spaces and the natural environment.

Performance works are presented in Japan and abroad, such as tours inviting the audience to unfamiliar places, stage works focusing on functions found in theaters, and chorus projects without a center point. He is also internationally renowned as a leading artist in the field of sound art. His solo exhibitions are wait this is my favorite part (The Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan, 2023-2024) and Tetsuya Umeda in BEPPU “0 Tai” (Oita, Japan, 2020-2021). Also, he has taken part in numerous international exhibitions including Oku-Noto Triennale (Suzu, Japan, 2023), REBORN ART FESTIVAL (Ishinomaki, Japan, 2019 and 2021-2022), Saitama Triennale 2020 (Saitama, Japan) and Taiwan East Coast Land Arts Festival 2018 (Dulan, Taiwan).