La cámara lúcida

With La cámara lúcida (The Bright Chamber), Shiro Takatani pays homage to the 1980 work of the same name by the French literary critic Roland Barthes in which the author investigates the effects of photography on the spectator and details the fundamental elements without which photography would not exist. Takatani, who in 1984 co-founded the Japanese artists' collective, Dumb Type, has designed various works and installations but this is the first he has both created and directed.

The website for Kyoto-based Dumb Type explains that "members are trained in varied disciplines, including visual arts, architecture, music composition and computer programming. Their work ranges across such diverse media as art exhibitions, performances, audiovisuals and publications."

The collective's work is recognised internationally for portraying a dark, technological world and according to their website, in many ways fulfills their original declared intent to "develop an art/performance form to fill the gap between static visual art and performance dependent on dialogue... The 'dumb' in Dumb Type thus does not denote a level of intelligence, but rather describes a desire to create without words."

Takatani's recent works include LIFE - fluid, invisible, inaudible (2007), a collaboration with the composer of the soundtrack for Bertolucci's The Last Emperor, Ryuichi Sakamoto, who also appears in concert at this year's Festival de Otoño on November 11.

www.dumbtype.com