The MCA is currently presenting a compelling retrospective on the forty-year artistic journey of Eiko and Koma—movement artists born in postwar Japan, trained by Butoh founders Tatsumi Hijkata and Kazuo Ohno, emigrated to the U.S. in the seventies, who create stark, intensely present work on subjects of nature and corporeality. Photography and documentation are on display in the gallery, and this weekend is the central stage performance component of the project. The couple presents three works spanning from 1976 to the present, including an early piece influenced by German modern dance and their most recent work—a collaboration with Native American composer Robert Mirabal that reflects on the scorched land of their childhood. Be on the lookout in November for the reprise of their stunning, meditative, living installation “Naked,” which takes place in the gallery over the course of several days and concludes the retrospective. (Sharon Hoyer)
September 22-24 at the Museum of Contemporary Art, 220 East Chicago, (312)397-4010, 7:30pm. $28.
