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Sako Kojima: I spent the summer of 2002 indoors and alone. My life was empty, all I did was go to the nearby supermarket to buy a simple meal and then come back home to sleep. One day I realised that my life was similar to a hamster’s. To me, becoming a hamster is a symbol of how life in today’s standardised society is safe and we’re spared from hunger, but we’re not living.I have a tear in my eye now.
We don’t suffer from physical pain, but we seem to have lost the pleasure of living. Our pain is mental, like self-injury, wrist-cutting syndrome and anorexia nervosa. They are ways for people to feel alive in this overprotected society. That’s how my mental suffering started.

While doing the performance I’m almost mindless, as my head goes empty when I mimic a hamster’s movement. When I move quickly, my heart beats faster and my feeling of shame disappears as the world outside gradually becomes meaningless to me.Um, is that good or bad? Hamster life looks like so much fun and everyone is smiling at you!
Actually, the quick movements are very difficult and tiring for a human-size hamster. But, since in my mind I’m a hamster throughout the whole performance, it isn’t until after that I feel my muscles ache and realise that my front tooth is broken.
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I like hamsters because they’re weak and vicious at the same time and they have this cool, stone-faced approach to humans. You can’t really tame them. I’ve had three pet hamsters since elementary school and I always felt guilty for keeping them in a cage. Hamsters, just like humans, are meant to live in the wild.Fair enough. But how do you face inevitable human needs like going to the toilet?
Just like a hamster I use the small hutch placed inside the cage.

I’ve had many different reactions to my performance. Japanese people watch it seriously, while French people sometimes give me dubious looks. I didn’t intend it but some people see my performance as something sexual! Children always love me and want to come see me again and again.Will you continue doing your hamster performance?
Yes, I just need to find the right circumstances. The plan for the next one is to have several hamster girls in a transparent cage, feeling the population pressure and each other’s warmth.

When it’s only one person, we cannot feel meanings.OK… Would you be our hamster if we made you a giant hamster wheel?
No.