Both based in Canada, Adam Kinner and Christopher Willes have been creating interdisciplinary works that focus on sound and participation in public space. Their collaboration, MANUAL, is an intimate performance that takes place in libraries across the world, in which one performer stages the piece for a single audience member. The venue for this iteration is the Ito Memorial Library at Kyoto City University of Arts, relocated to the east side of Kyoto Station in 2023. Created in collaboration with artists based in the Kansai region, MANUAL gives rise to a singular time and space that can only be encountered here.

The audience member meets with a performer (guide) at a designated location, and together they quietly explore the premises, looking at and reading books, listening to sounds on headphones. The more we focus, the sharper our senses grow and the greater our feeling of immersiveness expands. This series of thrilling experiences occurs covertly, intermingling with the daily life of the facility, which turns a library into a space of heightened awareness.

Organized by: Kyoto Experiment, Kyoto City University of Arts