Practice saying "NO" and "YES." The exhibition "Companionship Dynamics" is currently being held, which questions relationships not just between people but also those around us.

Questioning relationships between people through art

Lined up in a row on the street, people whispered lines of a poem into each other's ears as if they were playing a game of telephone. The artist herself runs a mobile ice cream cart on the streets of Vietnam, recording her interactions with local people on video. Contemporary artist Ura Ayaka has produced performance pieces that playfully question the nature of human relationships.

"The title is a combination of three words: 'accompany' (companying), 'separate' (dividing), and 'attitude' (posture). It means being together yet separate. I wanted to show the gradation between 'accompanying' and 'separating'. In my work, two performers exchange words and body movements on topics such as 'how to avoid fighting,' 'democratic decisions and the gaps within oneself,' and 'the idea of overthrowing the state.'

When doing so, we always first practice saying "NO" and "YES" to each other. We have a conversation where we decide to say "NO" to any question, and then we have a conversation that elicits a "YES" in return. In the performance, there is the possibility of touching and being touched, so we incorporate this with the aim of exploring each other's tolerance levels. We are preparing this practice so that visitors to the exhibition can also participate."

This exhibition will introduce the artists' expressions through video and installation from the perspective of "accompanying dynamics."

"I hope this exhibition will allow people to discover new relationships and how they relate to one another. I would also like people to pay attention to the way the images and words are recorded."