Holding a Police Officer in Front of the Houses of Parliament

2012 Performance Document Video 7’08min

Niwa approached security guards around the Diet Building with the request to hold them. Through the act of a citizen attempting to hold a police officer who is usually expected to protect the citizen we are brought to consider what it is that the police protect us from in the relations between the individual and state system. In reality the negotiations ended in failure, but within the exchange of dialogue one may draw out certain questions surrounding the object of our fears and reservations. Furthermore, with an interest in the consistency (or lack of it) between the actual conversation and the subtitles added to the video afterwards, Niwa adds subtitles which are clearly incongruous with the original speech and thus breaks down the scenario of dialogue. By deliberately adding fictions to the documentary in order to confuse the line between fact and fabrication, Niwa raises the doubt that the viewer aligns the response of the police with what they wish to hear.

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