About

'The mountain is there and never there. A mountain will always escape a photograph. You can never appropriately capture it.' Fiona Tan

Ascent is an exquisite docufiction exploring photographic representation of Japan's Mount Fuji. Working in collaboration with the Izu Photo Museum, Fiona Tan amassed more than 4,000 still images of the landmark – from historical records, tourist postcards and everyday iPhone photographs – and creates a montage that tracks movement on and around the mountain. Two voiceovers move in and out of these sequences– that of an English woman voiced by Tan herself and her deceased Japanese partner voiced by actor Hiroki Hasegawa. Together they ruminate on the mountain's cultural and geographical significance and an underlying narrative of personal love and loss.