Video Installation, HD 11 min. 18 sec., 2008-2011

Title: 1970

A page from a publication in 1974, an IKEA’s frame that was sold in 2010 and an attached ready-to-frame cut out mat

Title: Untitled (the Present)

An empty encyclopedia “World History Series 23: The Present” which was published in 1973

Title: Two Athens images from an Athens image

An image from a publication in 1972, Color Xerox of the image, B&W Xerox of the image (Duplicated in 2010)

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< goethe-haus

Text: from the catalog of The 3rd Yebisu International Festival For Art and Alternative Visions, Published by Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography, 2011

Kaeko Mizukoshi

Goethe-Haus

When MIZUKOSHI Kaeko discovered the Goethe House, now a museum open to the public, what she found was not the original birthplace of Goethe, due to the original's destruction during World War II. It had been chosen among numerous lost buildings, and was furnished and remodeled with historical accuracy. Such is history, where all facts are preserved and validated after they are artificially selected among countless daily happenings. This inspired her to make a film weaving reality and fiction by using the House's interior as a stage, mixing "accurate re-creation" and "reality". Mizukoshi clothes the actors in 18th century costume, intending to enhance the story in the context of the historical landmark and its fictionality. Instead of viewing the Goethe House through third-person objectivity (as observer or critic), the film goes so far as to capture the reflection of Mizukoshi filming through the mirror, introducing her as the controller of the film. Will a film shot in this natural environment be a reality or a fiction?

Through the clash of past and present, reality and fiction, observer and "dramatis personae", Mizukoshi seeks the "possibility of new and open history and film".

By Keiko Okamura, the director of The 3rd Yebisu International Festival For Art and Alternative Visions and a curator of Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography