Friend Watan
2013
Blu-ray disc．color & b/w．sound．36’ 47”．single-channel video + documentation
Artist Statement
Since 2002 I’ve been fortunate to meet people from different walks of life when shooting my videos, and some of these people have become my long-term collaborators and friends. In the process of helping me, we learn much from each other. Over the course of our long-term association, each has left an impression of their unique character that I find difficult to articulate, and therefore has prompted me to continue recording them on film.
I’ve been friends with Watan Uma for more than ten years. After the 921 earthquake struck in 1999, Watan started helping friends report on disaster areas in his spare time away from his factory job. In 2002 he quit his job at the factory, becoming a drifter outside existing economic systems. He then started making performance art in 2004. After I asked him to help with pre-production and play a role in my film Bade Area in 2005, Watan and I became more than just friends, we were collaborators.
I never asked Watan why he wanted to quit his factory job. I think he chose to leave a life of economic stability after thinking deeply about his situation. I learned about the difficulties he’s encountered in bits and pieces through our conversations. I can only guess at what his past must have been like from the traces it has left on his face and body, and from his speech or silent expressions. Before I started filming, I asked Watan if I could see a picture of him when he was younger. A few days later, with a few pictures and a notebook in hand, he said to me, “I could only find these. The rest are missing.”
No matter what remains of the past, in a certain respect, its disappearance is inevitable. I know I could never accurately document Watan’s life, but can only observe the Watan that exists at the moment, or the pictures and notebook he brought to me. In a notebook dated 2000, I found some miscellaneous notes about his work at the factory and in the disaster zone, memorandums of working as a stagehand for his theater friends, reflections on an article detailing the evolution of capitalism and socialism, some observations about life and the difficulties he has faced, and phone numbers of some people I don’t know. (1)
We worked together to film some non-specific experiences, and created a film that was neither biographical nor documentary in nature,(2) but perhaps presents the moments of Watan’s life that I witnessed, impression I have of his character, or maybe some other things that are beyond what I had imagined.
Notes
- The film includes a voice-over of Watan reading a long list of words. The script is based on words originally written in Watan’s notebook, and generated collaboratively through free association by people working on the film and me.
- Friend Watan was filmed on a set made by Watan and nine other friends for my previous work Happiness Building. After filming for Friend Watan was complete, these ten friends and I demolished the set.