Zantou
varied media (main: books published between the 60's and the 90's in Japan and exported to France)
Ongoing work & research
What defines belonging? What defines pertainance?
What does blood affiliation mean?
Roots?
Does a same blood in different veins induce belonging?
Is it defined by language?
By skin tone, size, facial features?
By a shared name?
Having the same laugh?
Eye colour, hobbies, skill sets, similar toes?
Shared values and ethics?
Shared faith?
A land? A territory? What is a territory?
The soil of one’s birth place.
The legends, sermons, formulas, fables it bred.
The words that were built into a vocabulary in a
“territory”.
What becomes of belonging when the blood chain breaks its vow to perpetuate language? The magical vocabulary used to teach and share the legends and stories. The knowledge. The truth of a land and its people. It is lost in transmission.
When blood is there but the soil vanishes, reluctant to perpetuate.
There are the remains (“zantou”) of a world within another, the remains of a language within its baffled sister land.
A story made of secret codes and mystifying visuals that can only be translated in limited and unorthodox ways.
