Artist Statement

Based on a sentence taken from the seminal book of Jacques Derrida, French philosopher, “Speech and Phenomena” translated by David B. Allison, I produced first video “Talking to Myself” in 1978 (revised in 2001). The video was highly appreciated as “the strongest, most effective statement one could make from the work of Derrida” by Professor Allison. The sentence I quoted, that Derrida calls “phenomenological essence” is that I hear myself at the same time that I speak. The new DVD, not just a transfer of video, extends further with the text, and the graphics which work interactively. In “Hearing / Speaking”, for instance, you can choose among the monitors with the picture of a face, head, ear and mouth in the video-installation, and you can read/see different programs. So you can perceive and localize “Hearing I Speaking” with the organs. Together with “Seeing” in this DVD I could combine the perception of “Seeing” with “Hearing / Speaking”. Other three related videos are “Talking to Myself: Phenomenological Operation (1978), “Talking in New York” (1981 revised in 2001) and “Talking to Myself at PS1″(1985). Throughout these videos I try to question the validity of the notion of an identity in video, which is different from the actual voice, between “the I who hear” and “the I who speak.” The text includes “A letter to Takahiko limura” by David B. Allison, and “On Talking to Myself” by Takahiko limura.

• Takahiko Iimura has been a pioneer artist of Japanese experimental film and video, working in film since 1960 and with video since 1970. He is also a widely established international artist, having numerous exhibitions including Installation and performance in Japan, the USA, and Europe. One of his early films, “Onan”, was awarded Special Prize at the legendary Brussels International Experimental Festival, 1964. Recently he has been involved in using computer, publishing multimedia CD-ROMs. He has also published several books writing on film, video, and multimedia.