Masamitsu Araki (Kyoto) »Soundtrack for Midnight TAMURO. A Journey Down Memory Lane« (Prologue, 2021/2026, Video, 29:40 mins.)

The video features artist Masamitsu Araki (b. 1981) on a journey back to sites of his childhood and youth in Kaminoyama, a provincial town in Yamagata Prefecture, northern Japan. In preparation for his sound art performance → »Soundtrack for Midnight TAMURO«, the artist re-visited a number of parking lots in 2021 – locations on the outskirts of town, situated between industry and landscape, where people gathered and much of the small-town youth culture played out. Araki recounts personal memories of events that took place in these parking lots. The video serves as a prologue to the performance → »Soundtrack for Midnight TAMURO«, which will be presented on August 21 and 22, 2026, at Festwiese Apolda.

Cornelia Erdmann (Weimar) »7 Minutes on the Subject of Petrol Stations« (2001, Video, 7:00 mins.)

The video mirrors the daily reality of small cities in East Germany. The petrol station, the nearby fast-food restaurant and the shopping mall on the edge of town demand a new definition of the meaning of city-life. The shift of urban activities to the periphery and the displacement of common infrastructure out of city centers is not only a city development problem: the petrol station turns into a youth center, the McDonald’s becomes the favorite meeting point and shoppers stroll along the highway with high-rise housing blocks in the background. These are the images on the search for the contemporary German town, which could be almost anywhere.

The two videos are shown alternately.

On 21 and 22 August, Masamitsu Araki’s concert performance → »Soundtrack for Midnight TAMURO«, in which cars fitted with high-end sound systems form a musical ensemble, is presented at Festwiese Apolda.