Erik Schmidt created the film Cut/Uncut during a stay in Tokyo in 2015. Clad in a loose-fitting business suit, the artist strolls, seemingly aimlessly, through the metropolis, plunging into the crowds, performing everyday rituals such as eating in a fast-food restaurant or visiting a gaming arcade. Yet despite his rapprochement to the new environment and culture, moments of alienation and a sense of being different arise again and again–fracture points where his own cultural identity becomes visible.

Approximately midway through the film, the artist’s role shifts once more: during a ceremony in a traditional Japanese interior, Schmidt, his face completely impassive, calmly cuts through his clothing until all that remains is a kind of open, rather Japanese-style garment. As a symbolic act, this unravelling of the suit is reminiscent of shedding skin. The final transformation occurs at the end of the film when the artist casts off his remaining clothes and walks into the sea.