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NEWS FROM K  
35 min video, books, archive materials, color copies, boxes, letters, 2023

NEWS FROM K is an exhibition based on an experimental video sketch in progress (being developed into the feature length documentary film 'The 49th Year'), which examines urban landscapes in connection with the writings of anarchist activist Toshihiko Kamata, the supposed 'leader' of the Black Helmet Group, which formed around him in 1971.

After the violent suppression of the student movement in Tokyo and the failure of the opposition to the Japanese-American security pact, the radical leftist 'Kuro Hero' group resorted to a bomb struggle as a propaganda tool against state power and Japan's involvement in the Vietnam War.
After bombings of several police stations in Tokyo, and a US military communication station in Sendai, the ‘Christmas Tree Bomb’ exploded at the Oiwake police station box in Shinjuku, injuring seven, including a police officer. Kamata was arrested in 1980 and is currently serving a life sentence.
Kamata’s letters from prison link his militant past to his present life behind bars, with critical observations of the sociopolitical conditions both within and beyond the prison walls and the national borders. In this film, fragments of his poetic and philosophical reflections spanning the five decades since the bombing - eight years on the run and more than 40 years inside the wall - resonate in the landscapes and locations where Kamata lived and spent time during his struggle in Tokyo, Yamaguchi, Miyagi, and Akita.

Within the frame of "landscapes as a power device" (*1), in which the power structure of the state and capital is discerned in the details of ordinary, unremarkable scenery, the film captures not only the remnants of the former radical activists but also anonymous citizens and laborers. It observes individuals such as road constructors preparing for work, an elder man cleaning a parking lot early in the morning unnoticed but under the security cameras, and even police officers patrolling on white bicycles. These sceneries reveal the presence of unnamed individuals who remain hidden unless one takes a moment to pause amid the city’s hustle and bustle.
These landscapes serve as a lens into socioeconomic structures of an aging society, growing social disparities, increasing surveillance, the ever-present state authority, and silent acts of resistance. From this vantage point, this work revisits the landscape theory developed by filmmakers and photographers in the 1960s and 1970s, as exemplified by A.K.A. Serial Killer (*2) through the eyes of an outsider.

The exhibition also features corresponding materials including trial documents, written records of support from civic activists, maps that trace Kamata’s footsteps during his struggles and a small fraction of books that he has read in prison over the years.
The exhibition delves beyond the aftermath of the bombings, exploring the convoluted past that led the assailant to resort to such extremes and casting doubt on the efficacy of the current legal system. All of these subjects provoke conjecture about the potential for citizens to engage with society. The exhibition space is envisioned as a platform for reflection and debate about the prospects for social change.
(text by Mariko Mikami)

*1 Masao Matsuda, Fukei no Shimetsu (The extinction of Landscape), Tabata Shoten, 1971.
*2 Masao Adachi, A.K.A. Serial Killer, 86 min., finished in 1969, released in 1975. In collaboration with directors Koji Wakamatsu and Nagisa Oshima, screenwriter Mamoru Sasaki, and critic Matsuda Masao.


Related Events:

Talk and discussion with former Black Helmet Group members, October 30, 2023 18:30-20:30
The event invites former members of the Black Helmet Group to discuss the Christmas Tree Bombing Incident and their activities and philosophies that led up to it for the first time in public.

Books from Prison
While the internal conditions of Japanese prisons remain largely obscure, one can ask what makes the significance of reading in prison.
On the last two days of the exhibition, December 2 and 3, 2023, a used book fair took place, making Mr. Kamata's books available to the public.
The proceeds of books sales were used to buy new books for Mr. Kamata.
Organizer: “Sobo” Editorial Team

Exhibition 'Heidrun Holzfeind: News from K'
27 October - 3 December, 2023
ASAKUSA, 1-6-16 Nishiasakusa, Taito, Tokyo, 111-0035
In Collaboration with: Toshihiko Kamata, Makiko Watanuki, Koyo Yamashita, Norie Fukuda
gallery assistence: Gamze Baktir

English: https://www.asakusa-o.com/en/news-from-k/
Japanese: https://www.asakusa-o.com/news-from-k/

Supported by: Arts Council Tokyo (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture), Federal Ministry for Art and Culture Austria, Female Artist Grant of the Senate of Berlin

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