Cargo Asia

A Truck Ride through Japan, Singapore, Shanghai

By Kaegi / Karrenbauer

After two years on tour through Europe and Middle East with Stefan Kaegi's Cargo Sofia, Jörg Karrenbauer brings the converted truck to Asia and casted two japanese drivers. Their lives and music synchronize the transit - landscape to a 3d-Road-Movie. “Cargo Japan” invites the audience to take a seat in the back of a converted truck, and depart for a tour tracing the flow of goods. During the tour the two veteran drivers tell episodes from their trucker biographies.
Aoki-san, a 62-year-old truck driver, born in Brazil, came back to his parents country Japan 20 years ago after his truck was stolen at the border to Paraguay. In Japan he started to transport soil but after four weeks he quit because the company forced him to load 60 tonnes although the truck was only allowed to take 25 tonnes. "If I lose my driving license it is very hard to find a new job because I am a Nikkei" (Brazilian born Japanese) he said. Now he is driving Brazilian chicken from Tokyo to Gunma in the north of Japan where a lot of Nikkeis are living. "Brazilian chicken are still cheaper than the Japanese", he said.
His Japanese colleague Hatanak-san hardly ever went abroad. He also drove soil to build a new artificial island within the Yokohama Port. "If you dream of the Fujisan (mountain of Fujiyama) in the new years night, it will bring you luck for the upcoming year. And it is said that it is the same if you dream about eggplants. I have never understood why."

After Japan, the truck moves on to Singapore, where malaysian drivers will take audiances through one of the biggest ports of south-east Asia, and to Shanghai, where nobody knows how to get transport everything to the Expo what the Expo needs...
The Performers in Singapore are: Ganes A/L Ramachandran (33) and Ravindran A/L Muniandy (44). They are both Indian-Malaysians and they both grew up in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan, 70km south of Kuala Lumpur. Both are married and currently reside in Johore Bahru, the Malaysian border town to Singapore. And both of them have never been to India.The first time they met was at the Pasir Panjang Container Terminal in the port of Singapore where they are working as truck drivers. They are doing the night shifts to avoid the long queuing at the immigration office at JB. "But driving at night is also very peaceful. Sometimes it is like a breeze and you feel free", Ganes says.But he can not spend too much time with his wife so he will at one time go back to Malaysia and become a farmer.While Ravi says: "I will continue beeing a truck driver until my eyes become too weak to drive".

article

http://www.cnngo.com/tokyo/play/cargo-tokyoyokohama-documentary-performance-back-truck-707891

http://www.youth.sg/content/view/7963/51/

Blogs

http://blogs.todayonline.com/forartssake/2010/05/14/singapore-arts-fest-the-cargo-team/

http://singartsfestival.wordpress.com/2010/05/22/on-cargo-goods-and-bads/