1968年に亡くなった株式会社リコーの創業者・市村清と、現代のリコーで働く役員・社員が「会う」という体験型の作品。リコー創業の地である大森に2020年にオープンした研究所「RICOH 3L」に設置されている。
タッチパネルで表示されるいくつかの質問に答えてから、小部屋に設置されたヘッドホンを装着すると、創業者・市村清が、現代のリコーの役員・社員の名前を呼びかけ、彼らに語りかけてくる。そして声に促されるままロビーに移動すると、現代の俳優によって演じられた市村清のスピーチが上演される。それは、市村が過去に行った講演や執筆した書籍の言葉を極力そのまま使用しながら、現代のリコー社員に向けて再構成されたスピーチである。市村の正義感、好奇心、闘志、人間らしさを表す「光と闇」をモチーフとした映像表現が、受け手の想像力を刺激する。
私たちは、あの世に旅立った市村清と実際に会うことはできないけれど、もし彼が現代に生きていたら何を話すだろうかと、想像することはできる。市村が今の自分だったらどんな仕事の仕方をするだろうか、そうやって死者を今の自分を重ね合わせ、死者の発想法を「インストール」することで、自分にはない発想に辿り着くことができる。本作品は、創業者のスピーチを再構成し上演するという演劇的手法を用いて、現代の企業で働く者たちに「働く意味」を問いかける、実験的作品となった。
In tribute to Kiyoshi Ichimura is a founder of Ricoh Co., Ltd., who died in 1968, the immersive installation gives opportunities to executives and employees working at Ricoh today to meet him and listen to his speech. It is installed in the RICOH 3L research institute opened in 2020 within the area where Ricoh was founded in Tokyo.
After answering a few questions displayed on the touch panel, the audience is invited to wear headphones in front of the music box playing company song and the founder Kiyoshi calls out their name and start talking to them. Then, as the voice prompts them, they move to the lobby and listen to a speech by Kiyoshi Ichimura. It is a speech played by a modern actor that has been reconstructed for present Ricoh employees, using the words of Kiyoshi’s lectures and books as much as possible. Kiyoshi’s visual expression based on the motif of “light and darkness,” which expresses his sense of justice, curiosity, fighting spirit, and humanity, stimulates the imagination of the audience.
They can’t actually meet Kiyoshi Ichimura, who traveled to the afterlife, but we can imagine what he would say if he were alive today. They can wonder what kind of work Kiyoshi would do if he were them now. When they try to install the way of his thinking to their mind, they could find another idea that they’ve never seem. It is an experimental work that uses the theatrical method of reconstructing and restaging the speeches of the founders to question the purpose of work to executives and employees of the company today.
Producer: Haruki Murata (Ricoh), Director & Playwright: Daisuke Nakazawa (architecting stories), Space Coordinator & Technologist: Alexander Reeder (ARPG), Motion Graphic Designer: Yusuke Murakami (3AND), UX Designer: Ryotaro Fujiyama (Ricoh), Planning Advisor: Chifumi Tsuruoka (Ricoh), UI Designer: Ryuichi Shirane (Ricoh), Sound Designer: Ryo Harada & Chinatsu Kikuchi (Lader Production), Voice Recording Supervisor: Yuji Ono (Talk Company), Voice Actor: Naoshi Miura, Interior: The Hub, AV instruments coordinator: Eizo Center
