Eri Saito

2025

Inspired by the phenomenon known as "scintillating scotoma," a visual disturbance often preceding migraines, this work explores the illusions created by the brain. In Ryunosuke Akutagawa's (1892–1927) posthumous work Cogwheels, there is a depiction of cogwheel-like hallucinations appearing as a
precursor to his headaches, resembling the symptoms of scintillating scotoma. Learning that Akutagawa had stayed in Fujisawa's Kugenuma area for medical treatment and wrote several works there, including Mirage, I was inspired to create a film work that draws on the connections between migraines,
Akutagawa's literature, and the town of Kugenuma itself. The piece reflects fleeting feelings of discomfort or mysterious occurrences in daily life.

Eri Saito
Japan
2025
15 min
Russian Premiere

Hisao Kurozumi

CC: Everyone, Yet No One (2025)
Slightest Pretense (わずかな見せかけ) (2025)
New Trees (2024)
Social Circles (2023)
May All Your Wounds Heal (2021)
Ebony Dream (2019)
Shake: Dreaming Body (2018)

Eri Saito (b. 1991, Fukushima, Japan) is a Tokyo-based artist working primarily with moving images. Her practice focuses on the invisible and elusive dynamics of memory and perception. By confronting subtle ambiguities and fluctuations that cannot be fully captured through surface-level language or fixed categories, she seeks to gently trace and preserve the fleeting impressions and memories that emerge. Her recent exhibitions include Before the Haze Disperses (Yokohama Civic Art Gallery, Kanagawa, 2025), Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2025 (Tokyo Photographic Art
Museum, 2025), and Artists in FAS 2024 (Fujisawa City Art Space, Kanagawa, 2025). Her film works have been screened at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF Lightbox, Toronto, 2025), EXiS (Korean Film Archive, Seoul, 2024), and Prismatic Ground (Anthology Film Archives, New York, 2024), among others. In 2024, she received the Second Prize at the e-flux Film Award in New York.