OFFBEAT TM: Takashi Ito / Takashi Inagaki

Image and Sound

— film screening

Following our music library program in Bucharest, this event brings a sample from our collection to Timisoara – The Takashi Ito Film Anthology DVD, offering an uncompromised look at a cornerstone of the Japanese avant-garde.

The screening highlights the intense creative symbiosis between director Takashi Ito’s hyper-kinetic experimental cinema and the haunting electronic compositions of his long-running collaborator, Takashi Inagaki. Presenting the anthology in its entirety invites the audience to actively compare Ito’s stark, silent pieces with the ones scored by Inagaki. This layout explicitly shifts the spotlight onto Inagaki’s vital contribution, demonstrating how his sonic landscapes act not as mere accompaniment, but as absolute co-authors of Ito’s hypnotic tension.

Takashi Ito is a defining figure in Japanese experimental cinema. A protégé of film director and video artist Toshio Matsumoto, Ito challenges the limits of visual perception by deconstructing the moving image through single-frame manipulation, long exposures, and frantic camera movements.

Takashi Inagaki is ‘one of the most singular and unjustly overlooked experimental composers of his generation.’ A master of magnetic tape loops, musique concrète, and industrial textures, his works provide the structural gravity essential to the films of both Ito and Toshio Matsumoto.

Takashi Ito Film Anthology (DVD): A comprehensive collection featuring 20 experimental films (1981–2002). Total running time: 150 min + 33 min bonus features.

OFFBEAT space is an independent library dedicated to exploring contemporary music and obscure sounds through listening, screenings and reading public sessions. It hosts a constantly growing collection of books, films, and music releases available in both analog and digital formats. Founded by Image and Sound in Bucharest in 2025.

Event Note: Educational, non-commercial screening with free admission. Organized exclusively to share our library's permanent archive with the local community.

Cultural programme co-funded by the Administration of the National Cultural Fund.