2025, video, 19’10,

A Japanese woman stands in front of the 19th-century folding screen “View of Dejima in Nagasaki Bay” at the National Museum of Ethnology in Leiden, the Netherlands. She is captivated by the image of Dejima—the Dutch East India Company’s trading post and Japan’s only gateway to the West for over two centuries—which takes the shape of a folding fan. She imagines the fan as a metaphor for Dejima; by opening and closing it, one could control the flow of exchange in history between Japan and the outside world. What if that “gate” to the West had remained closed? How might Japan’s culture and economy have evolved—and what would it mean for her, a Japanese woman living in the Netherlands?

Between humour and melancholy, the film traces her poetic exploration of history and identity, carried by the gentle swing of her song.

• Related art works with ‘View of Dejima’.

— Exhibition View