A Flipping Cars Event

My Father's Favorite Game

In "My Father's favorite Game (Flipping Earth and Sky)" Yuken invented a new form of sports based on the Koza Riot (1970) in Okinawa during US military occupation.
Sports often reflect aspects of cultural and religious life of their origin and imitate or commemorate war and conflict.
Like the marathon goes back to a greek war event, Yuken transformed the cultural memory the Koza riot, where locals flipped US military cars in outrage over their occupants, into a new form of sports match, preserving the memory as a ritualitic custome but erasing the violence.
In the event two teams compete to flip automobiles in the fastest and most elegant manner, using only human strength.
The work is an artistic approach to re-visit a history of conflict in Okinawa and bring it to the present in a new form. Without losing the memory of the past, the cultural practice sport may help to disgest and turn historical images and memory into a creative force that brings people together to get over shared difficulties.


The work was first created as an installation piece for Shanghai Biennale 2018.

Year:
2018-2019
Material:
video installation, dimensions variable, 1920 x 1080 video