Big Sponge on my Mother’s Head, Kawasaki-City Fire Station, Nov. 15, 1998, photography by Masahiro Suda, courtesy of the artist

Since 1996 Tatsumi Orimoto has included his mother in about 40 actions, which he labels „Art-Mama“. These actions interrupt the daily routine and loneliness he and his mother experience.  Art actions mean to bring intensity into a dull life and create memorable moments. Some events resemble festival days and jubilees, in which sometimes up to 50 participants are involved. These events manifest care, attention and love publicly; they help to balance the symptoms of depression and Alzheimer. Therapists acknowledged this in the November-issue of Floating Time, the Journal of the Satoasahikawa Hospital (Vol. 3, 2002), where Orimoto directed workshops for elderly and mentally disabled persons.

For an essay on Tatsumi Orimoto: Communication through the Tire Tube
klick: http://www.fotogalerie-wien.at/content.php?id=34&ausstellung=110&details=1&PHPSESSID=c1d7013397c7b708fd1e9d860a965135
The adventure of communication between old and young in greater Tokyo as photographed by Tatsumi Orimoto and seen by Johannes Lothar Schroeder