Fierce Unworking

Ko Murobushi (1947–2015) was one of the most important performers and choreographers in the Japanese performance scene of the 21st century as well as a key figure in the mediation between the experimental Butoh tradition of Hijikata Tatsumi and anti-logocentric French avant-gardes as Antonin Artaud and Gilles Deleuze. Radically positioned at the intersection of the two, Murobushi reveals himself as an extraordinary and poetic author in his "thinking of the body". Fierce Unworking highlights his role as an unparalleled pioneer of contemporary paradigms such as "body language", the "third space" or "embodied knowledge". Ten years after his death, this volume brings together writings, poems and diary fragments in collaboration with the Ko Murobushi archive in Tokyo, many of which are available in English for the first time.

Ko Murobushi (1947-2015) was one of the best-known and acclaimed Butoh artists in the world and was recognized in Japan as a leading inheritor of choreographer Hijikata Tatsumi's original vision of Butoh. He studied with Hijikata in 1968, briefly giving up dance to become a mountain monk. After his return to society, Murobushi founded several internationally acclaimed dance companies. After his death, his work and writings were preserved through the Ko Murobushi Archive in Tokyo.