Anima Mundi

Anima Mundi is a modern animist epic that fuses visceral movement, live music and cinematic projected imagery to conjure a world of spirit beings and shadows. Inspired by ancient ritual and Japanese supernatural woodblock prints, Anima Mundi serves as a meditation on reconnection with the other-than-human world, a space to examine the human-centric perceptions that devalue our sensorial animal intelligence. A woman walks into the forest and discovers a portal leading to the source of the soul. Guided through a deep transformation by a Marebito spirit being, she navigates the realms of modern disconnect, moving through dimensions where she is trapped in a factory-farm cage or surrounded by autonomous cars. This multifaceted story is inspired in part by the Aruki Miko, roaming female shamans who performed rites across ancient Japan before their powers were stripped by patriarchal forces. Parsing supernatural Japanese woodblock prints and fables with light projected through textured washi paper, Anima Mundi coaxes ghosts and spirits to emerge from the shadows. True to the vision of director Haruko Crow Nishimura and the signature style of Degenerate Art Ensemble, the performance offers a hyper-visual and texturally rich experience.