Wangnin Bunmei

Profile

The word “Wangnin” is an original term created by this troupe to signify a fool and we use it to refer to people who are obsessed by delusions. As a performance troupe Wangnin Bunmei (literally “fools civilization”) uses the idea of being a fool as its major premise. The members attempt to synthesize dance, performance and circus-like entertainment. The troupe appeals to the audience both in a light-hearted way and through its sincerity in combining popular as well as challenging aspects of performance.

Kazuya Zenzai, the youngest of siblings that includes three musicians and two dancers, formed Wangnin Bunmei in 2004. The troupe doesn’t have set members and they tend fluctuate with every performance. At the present time Wangnin Bunmei consists of seven musicians, two dancers, and a number of extras. Of course this line-up is not fixed and in general the troupe creates its performances by both the musicians and dancers using improvisation. Elder brother Daisuke Zenzai often takes charge of the direction and composition as a whole. Kae Ishimoto creates the dance choreography and deals with management.

Statement

The Wagnin Bunmei troupe is based around the idea of a “Wagnin”, or fool, whose worldview is greatly removed from, even opposite of, what is generally accepted by society. They are the rejects, homeless, freaks and mentally ill of our society. People who have this “twisted” or “backwards” point-of-view attain a kind of spontaneity and light-heartedness and we can call them fools (Wangin). Society’s received way of thinking has become sterile, dead, decided, devoid of human creativity and vigor. When one enters the realm of the fool one becomes again connected to the smell and taste of the everyday human experience, the viscera of human beings, things that stink with the stench of humanity. These fools are not simply happy-go-lucky folks who see the lighter side of things. They are people possessed by delusion. They lose the ability to distinguish between objects and people. Yet in this confusion they see and experience something more human than the “rational” man. They are connected to stench of life that forms in stagnant water. For the normal person everything has meaning but if we think about all these things very carefully the meaning falls away, nothing has intrinsic meaning. These spaces are crucial for artists to create some emptiness that approaches the Meaninglessness that the Wangin (fool) experiences.

Thus our project in Wagnin Bunmei is to describe and give some taste of this other world, the meaningless world, the fool’s world. To do this we use dance, music and performance. We create musical work that has a story, and in a sense it is theater. We use improvisational dance and music in equal measure and in equal positions to create our unique blend of music, dance and theater performance. Each member has a lot of experience with different genres in their background, for example, contemporary dance, butoh, jazz, rock, soca, folk, breakbeats, etc. In the end our works are not “dance”, “theater”, or even “music”. We seek only what is “crazy” as a common meeting place. We tend to trigger a reaction in people that this could be anything from popular entertainment or traditional entertainment, to a circus, but our work is not simply entertainment. We attempt to create art but at the same time we despise “art for art’s sake”. We have a healthy distance from this kind of “art” and we hope to create innovative entertainment.

Video Gallery

Wangnin Bunmei - 1		Wangnin Bunmei - 2		Wangnin Bunmei - 3		Wangnin Bunmei - 4