A tender roller coaster ride

A tender roller coaster ride is a sensory experience for a single audience member. At its core is a narrative written by Emi Kodama to be perceived through the body and the senses. You are blindfolded to focus your imagination while a story is told in which you live a day in the life of the protagonist. Emi’s work is influenced by cinema, and the text is intended to project a film in your mind’s eye.

To further immerse you in the narrative, your limbs are gently moved at key moments. Having your body moved has a dreamlike quality: it activates your muscle memory, evoking a body in your imagination that feels both foreign and familiar.

In this intimate encounter, you are invited to surrender by simply relaxing. This form of embodied storytelling exists only in your mind and body. We would like you to feel comfortable – everything unfolds within the privacy of your inner world.

• Emi Kodama is a Japanese-C­anadian artist from Vancouver. She has been living and working in Belgium since 2008, when she started the post-graduate program at the Higher Institute for Fine Arts (HISK). Through a multidisciplinary practice that includes writing, performance, and installation, Emi layers elements of daily life with dreams and memories to create stories that you can explore and expand. Her work blends your inner world with hers. She wants to give you the opportunity to spend time in your mental space – for you to be curious, ask questions, and realize the power of your imagination.

Central to Emi’s work is storytelling that cinematically guides you through your imagination. Her stories are based on the everyday and are travels to different destinations in your mental world. They often explore her personal connections to Canada, Japan, and Belgium – the way these places intersect and diverge, and her search for home between them. As she reads her stories aloud, viewers are often unaware of their own physicality while listening; however, you are always two bodies, your physical one and your imagined one. If you visualize yourself climbing a mountain, it’s an imaginary body that carries you.

Emi’s work draws your inner and outer worlds closer together to create a narratively immersive experience. With consideration for your physical presence, she creates environments that complement the text and engage the senses through light, sound, motion, and heat.