Skip navigation

Main menu

  • What's on
  • Art & Artists
    • The Collection
      Artists
      Artworks
      Art by theme
      Media
      Videos
      Podcasts
      Short articles
      Learning
      Schools
      Art Terms
      Tate Research
      Art Making
      Create like an artist
      Kids art activities
      Tate Draw game
  • Visit
  • Shop
Become a Member
  • DISCOVER ART
  • ARTISTS A-Z
  • ARTWORK SEARCH
  • ART BY THEME
  • VIDEOS
  • ART TERMS
  • SCHOOLS
  • TATE KIDS
  • RESEARCH
  • Tate Britain
    Tate Britain Free admission
  • Tate Modern
    Tate Modern Free admission
  • Tate Liverpool + RIBA North
    Tate Liverpool + RIBA North Free admission
  • Tate St Ives
    Tate St Ives Ticket or membership card required
  • FAMILIES
  • ACCESSIBILITY
  • SCHOOLS
  • PRIVATE TOURS
Tate Logo
Become a Member
Tate Modern Film

Shuji Terayama programme 4: Terayama Live

18 March 2012 at 21.00–22.00
23 March 2012 at 21.00–22.00
Shuji Terayama Laura 1974

Shuji TerayamaLaura 1974

© Courtesy of the Terayama Museum

This event presents two of Terayama’s live action works bridging cinema and performance with the participation of Terayama’s original collaborator Henrikku Morisaki. The surprising, plague-like visual motifs in A Tale of Smallpox re-emerge in The Trial, which begins as a man hammers nails into a city street before normal social order collapses and the ‘disturbance’ spreads to an act of violent audience participation; Terayama made this work for projection on a specially constructed screen and provides white leader at the end as an invitation for audience members to abandon their position as spectators and take possession of their own energies, hammering nails into the surface of the image. In Laura the attack against the cinematic apparatus becomes a consummation between performer and spectator, which as a mark of Terayama’s outrageous wit, was reputedly inspired by the unfulfilled affair between Laura and Alec in the 1945 British feature, Brief Encounter. The appearance onscreen of outrageous painted strippers who hurl insults at the audience is a cue for one spectator to literally enter the screen, from which he emerges clutching his torn clothes, after being stripped and assaulted on celluloid.

Please note: the performance on Sunday 18 March takes place in the Turbine Hall; the second perfromance, on Friday 23 March takes place in the East Room, Level 7

The Trial (Shinpan)

Shūji Terayama, 1975 Japan, 16mm, 34 min, includes live performance by Henriku Morisaki

Laura

Shūji Terayama, 1974 Japan, 16mm, 9 min, includes live performance by Henriku Morisaki

Curated by Thomas Dylan Eaton in association with Tate Modern. 

With generous support from Daiwa Anglo-Japanese Foundation, Japan Foundation, Sasakawa Foundation, Toshiba Foundation, and All Nippon Airways.

Tate Film is supported by Maja Hoffmann / LUMA Foundation.

Tate Modern

Bankside
London SE1 9TG
Plan your visit

Dates

18 March 2012 at 21.00–22.00

23 March 2012 at 21.00–22.00

Artwork
Close

Join in

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
Sign up to emails

Sign up to emails

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Tate’s privacy policy

About

  • About us
  • Our collection
  • Terms and copyright
  • Governance
  • Picture library
  • ARTIST ROOMS
  • Tate Kids

Support

  • Tate Collective
  • Members
  • Patrons
  • Donate
  • Corporate
  • My account
  • Press
  • Jobs
  • Accessibility
  • Privacy
  • Cookies
  • Contact
© The Board of Trustees of the Tate Gallery, 2025
All rights reserved