Hikikomori

Freiburg (Germany)

Manuel Schunter is .The actor enters the scene through a trap door, as if he dealt with entering a proper space secret for a street that only he knows.The scene ...

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... or rather the space deprived in which is sheltered, it has the narrow limits imposed by a board made of raw wood with three different inclinations and by a backdrop realized ...

... with white LWE - Windel stretch fabric.A similar space, in terms of dimensions, to that in which the hikikomoris spend years of their own existence: it's normally a room of the residence of their own parents.

The round Metal frame that stretches the backdrop was realized with aluminum bars curved on purpose.

The wooden tilted Custom platform, of special realization, it is sectional, in way of allowing of it the transport and an easy assemblage.«A shelter, an island, a float, the primordial uterus, a door to make a goal, a gigantic ear, the reality and the imagination of overlap mediated by a screen of the computer.»Silvio Motta, annotations on the scenography of

The backdrop made of LWE - Windel gives the impression of a funnel that at times it seems to suck toward the bottom.

But it is also the tool that allows him to visualize his own imaginations or also the threats that originate from the outside ...

... thanks to the video projected on a surface that reacts very effectively both to the frontal light that to the rear-illumination.

Text

Holger Schober (1976)

Shenography,
costume design, video

Silvio Motta

Pedagogy of the theater

Viola Sinn

Light design

Marco Amedani

Stage direction

Ingeborg Waldherr

Staging

in collaboration with
LABA - Libera Accademia di Belle Arti di Brescia

Production

Kulturkreis im Staatlichen Schulamt Freiburg
Aktionskreis Suchtprophylaxe Freiburg

Hikikomori: (literally ''pulling away, being confined'', i.e., ''acute social withdrawal'') is a Japanese term to refer to the phenomenon of reclusive people who have chosen to withdraw from social life, often seeking extreme degrees of isolation and confinement because of various personal and social factors in their lives.
The term hikikomori refers to both the sociological phenomenon in general as well as to people belonging to this societal group.
The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare defines hikikomori as people who refuse to leave their house, and isolate themselves from society in their homes for a period exceeding six months.
While the degree of the phenomenon varies on an individual basis, in the most extreme cases, some people remain in isolation for years or even decades. Often hikikomori start out as school refusals, or futōkō in Japanese (an older term is tōkōkyohi).
The Ministry of Health estimates that approximately 50,000 hikikomori live in Japan, about one third of whom are aged 30 and older (Larimer 2000).
From Wikipedia

Hikikomori

Freiburg (Germany)

Video & Documentation

''Hikikomori''

Materials used in this production

9TM - Metal frames

Custom platforms

LWE - Windel