Here’s Japan’s latest trend: ‘Zentai

A news about Zentai in Japan.


Academic Ikuo Daibo of Tokyo Mirai University said zentai fans seems to be groping for a different way of expressing their own identity.

“In Japan, many people feel lost; they feel unable to find their role in society,” he said.

“They have too many role models and cannot choose which one to follow.”

He said they take solace from the erasing of their outward appearances and say they believe it offers a way for people to get to know others as they are, rather than because of how they look.

“In a way, they are trying to expose their deeper self by hiding their own identity,” said Daibo. “I find it a very interesting way of communication.”

We have facebook open call page here.

The Zentai Art Project is seeking for proposal from artists to take part in the exhibition of “Zentai Art Festival" in 2014, which will be around November 2014. The festival is scheduled to take place at various art spaces and performance venues in Singapore;    

Contact for more info.

We are introducing a new art medium 'zentai' to Singapore.  This element zentai can be used as perofrmance art, music performance and visual art form.  We would like to explore the possibilities of the zentai art form though various artists.

We are exploring the zentai in different aspects.

social aspect: the phycological phenomenan of the zentai and its group

material: chemical company 'Torey' invented the material that became the foundation fo the zentai material

fashion and the industries: Zentai is a growing industry that manufactures unlimited possibilities

visual art: the figure of the body is a fundamental topic in the art for its search

performacne art: the zentai figure gives unlimited possibilities in the expression

 

     

Zentai is an instrument.  


An instrument for transformation. Transformation to someone who we want to be. transformation of the state of being.  Transformation of spiritual level. Transform to someone better because the life now, there are many issues and obstacles, and this life doesn't offer happiness.

Meditation, art, friends, drinking alcohol, money, job, marriage, learning something, etc...

All these are the instruments of the transformation in different degrees. Tools to bridge between me now, and me that we want to be.

We hope the instrument can bring us further in life.  Hoping that the instrument can show us the answer.

For example, "I don't know where my life is leading to.  I am lost.  I will go to pilgrimage and hope this will bring me the answer."
In this case, the pilgrimage is the instrument. It maybe bring something, maybe no.


Wearing zentai

By wearing zentai, or seeing someone wearing zentai, the zentai shuts down the parson from the outside world mainly because it is covering the face and it is challenging to see though from the fabric.
So zentai, in the way bring the parson's focus inwards.  The world outside no longer important for the parson.  it enhances the internal feeling.  The thought seems to be louder, the emotion is projected and the heart beat is loud.  Listening to the own breathing, feeling the ambient that surrounds the body, seeing the light and feeling the body.  

Not only in the degree of physical and mental,
more over it turns the focus inwards.

As many stories, practices, philosophy or religions say, the ultimate answer is to be found 'here and now'. No one can guide, no place can bring the state but here.

Zentai is a journey inward. The answer is within, what we look for is found within. It opens the eyes of insight. It is no longer possible to escape from who we are because it's all there is right here.

By focusing on the insight of the self, we merge into the world.  We project ourself bigger.  We are no longer squeezed into this tiny little body.  

Zentai Art is an unique Singapore art form.  Zentai has started in Japan.  But with the very first zentai art festival, zentai art will develop in Singapore as an unique Singapore art form.  This is something to export out to other country and not something that SIngapore imports like many other things.  This art from will help Singapore to generate the creativity to make an unique identity in the community.

Zentai Art Festival 2014 is looking for a documentary team to document a Singapore Super Hero Justice. It will be about looking for the super hero and documenting what he does.  The film should be about 15 minutes long and it will be featured in the festival screening along with an another featured film (about 60 minutes) follow up with the artists talk.

The Essence of Femininity: Selfless Dedication To Another

 This occurs when the feminine principle, whose force is centrifugal, does not turn to fleeting objects but rather to a “virile” stability in which she finds a limit to her “restlessness.” Stability is then transmitted to the feminine principle to the point of intimately transfiguring all of its possibilities… What is needed therefore is a radical “conversion” of the feminine principle to the opposite principle; moreover, it is absolutely necessary for the masculine principle to remain wholly itself.

…there are also two types available to the feminine nature. A woman realizes herself as such and even rises to the same level reached by a man as warrior and ascetic only as lover and mother… [the feminine is] totally giving of herself and being entirely for another being, whether he is the loved one or the son, finding in this dedication the meaning of her own life, her own joy, and her own justification.

In Evola’s philosophy, to be feminine is to dedicate yourself selflessly to an external cause; masculinity is pure virility – as in the action of the warrior or the pure detachment of the ascetic. “To realize oneself,” he writes, is “to reduce in a woman all that is masculine and in a man everything that is feminine.” Within every person is a mix of the masculine and the feminine, but excellence lies in being a paragon of one’s sex. While a man’s success comes from achieving self-sufficiency and independent action, a woman achieves order by cleaving to a masculine force. Even in the absence of a man, she will seek to submit herself to some greater force.

This is an inaugural festival of such nature in Singapore and if you were to look more in dept at the Zentai culture in general, it is reminiscent of an outsider art form whereby it is not directly extended from contemporary art practice, but rather a certain sub-culture vis-a-vis post-modern expressions, that stems out from 21st century urban living, human social behavoirs & various social traits unique to the locality of its birthplace that had develop Zentai culture to what it is today. Through this project, we hope to explore the idea of Zentai, from within the art context (we have invited photographers, installation artists, video artists and performers to respond to the "Zentai" theme). 

More importantly, we will also like to discover opinions & find analytical points of view of the social conditions that surrounds this form of expression. For example, in Singapore recently, there is a public figure dressed like a Superhero (in a Zentai suit), who went around public trains, buses stations and public commute areas to guide the less priviledged or needy persons, requesting for commuters to give up their seats to people who needed them more. Incidents like this is a good example of how such an 'obscure' culture can truly integrate with real life, as with what most contemporary artists are striving for in their art, the beauty of it is that it transcended art's functionality as a public 'correct' action. This is just an example of how we may give an added context to the project we're planning out.