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Objection to the Reporters Roundtable Discussion Article Series in the Chunichi Shimbun, dated October 28 and 29, 2013, by Tetsuya Ozaki, General Producer, Performing Arts, Aichi Triennale 2013

The 2-part series "Reporters Roundtable Discussion on Aichi Triennale 2013" appeared in the Chunichi Shimbun on October 28 and 29, 2013. Unfortunately, the series contained considerable and significant misrepresentation of the facts and baseless criticism. Regarding misleading remarks on the event's overall planning intention as well as the Contemporary Arts program, artistic director Taro Igarashi has posted his objection on Twitter and in other media.

In the two articles were also some critical remarks on the Performing Arts program. As the general producer of the program, I posted an open letter of inquiry to five Chunichi Shimbun reporters on the web magazine REALTOKYO. For details of the controversial remarks and my inquiries, please visit the website below (in Japanese).
http://www.realtokyo.co.jp/docs/ja/column/outoftokyo/bn/ozaki_252/

In this statement, I would like to express my objection only to Reporter D's remarks about Mr. Ji?i Kylian, a world leading choreographer. Being deeply grieved for the victims of the Great East Japan Earthquake, Mr. Kylian, who really loves Japan, had especially created for the event a new dance performance work "to pray for the victims of the tsunami." Reporter D's extremely rude (and ungrounded) remarks and expressions were definitely insulting to Mr. Kylian, which I cannot overlook as the general producer of the Performing Arts program. The following remarks by Reporter D and my inquiries are extracted from the open letter of inquiry dated November 1, 2013.

Reporter D's remarks (second line from the bottom):
Yoko Ono, Ji?i Kylian, who is a world leading choreographer, and other representative artists of Aichi Triennale 2013 did not come to the venues during the event; their art works alone were performed/exhibited. Regarding EAST SHADOW, created by Ji?i Kylian, the viewers were poles apart in their opinions. . . . It seemed that the absent artists made light of the event, causing the event to be less exciting. I don't quite get it. Perhaps we got snubbed.
Regarding Mr. Kylian's absence, he sent us a video message prior to the press announcement, explaining that he was unable to travel by air to Nagoya to attend the world premiere of EAST SHADOW. The message implied his bad health condition. On the press announcement day, we not only showed the video message but also distributed his message translated into Japanese. Nevertheless, Reporter D ignored Mr. Kylian's conscientious explanation, making extremely rude and terribly inconsiderate remarks. I would like to know what Reporter D and the Chunichi Shimbun think of those remarks.
Regarding EAST SHADOW, it was highly received in many newspapers, magazines and websites. We also investigated the feedback from audience questionnaires as well as viewers' comments posted on some blogs and Twitter. According to our research, the number of favorable comments greatly exceeded those with critical opinions. I suppose "poles apart in opinions" generally implies that favorable and unfavorable opinions are almost equally matched. Please specify the supporting evidence of this expression. By the way, theater critic Kyoko Azumi highly evaluated EAST SHADOW and needless to say, her favorable comments appeared in the evening edition of the Chunichi Shimbun (no other newspapers) dated October 5, 2013.
As stated above, I strongly object to the five reporters' remarks at the roundtable discussion.

February 25, 2014
Tetsuya Ozaki,
General Producer, Performing Arts, Aichi Triennale 2013