WORKSHOP and EXHIBITION: For the Sake of Anyone Who We Might Not Have Seen Yet Season03

Workshop
Date: 18-20 May 2018 Venue: Curun Takaoka (Takaoka-shi, Toyama-prefecture)
Exhibition
Date: 11-15 October 2018 Venue: Gallery Venere (Takaoka-shi, Toyama-prefecture)

The event, in its 3rd year this year in Takaoka, Hokuriku, Japan which is 300 miles from Tokyo and faces the Japan (East) Sea. This time it was packaged as a series of workshops and exhibitions followed five months later. After working on expressing the feelings by focusing on the life and dreams of the female characters in the media in Hokuriku in the previous season to develop the subject the next workshop’s approach was to look for ‘hints and suggestions for community design (town-making) in which local citizen has high interest and it took place for three days in May 2018 after having previous researches and meeting as preparation from autumn 2017 to spring 2018.

Looking for hints and suggestions for community design (town-making) from the life and dream of the female characters in the media sound difficult however, it is true that there are some media with theme of community design (town-making) to activate are recently appearing such as TV anime `Sakura Quest’ (2017) made by the local studio P.A. WORKS and Mariko Yamauchi’s novel ‘Megane To Hoto Musume (A Girl with Glasses and A Prodigal Girl)’ (2017) and film based on her novel. Not only in recent media but also in the past there are some works representing women in the area trying to move things towards positive directions by questioning and subverting the conservative situation in the present and stereotypes and regenerating frozen things like Yukiko Motoya, Setsuko Tsumura and Kei Moriyama’s novels and films ever existed in Hokuriku Area. Our ambition is to intend to apply the experience there for progressive motivations and souls in architectural and urban design and fundamental inspiration for the future. Besides, the diagram was made by taking valuable inspirations we had there as ‘Mind-Map’.(Down below right)

keeping the same methodology in the three-day workshop, someone was working on taking suggestions given by the CAT staff and reached a sense of joy of their expression by showing how they felt with each one’s way. It was a very creative and fulfilling moment when we talked about their local activities, media, museums and exhibitions with people from different places, who have experience of creative expressions or not by sharing the same kind of theme. There were fresh encounters even someone who lives in the same town as well as discoveries.

The following exhibition in October took place in an art gallery in Takaoka with its support. The concept was to represent our three years of activities and the problems we found in terms of the urban issue. During the exhibition, we held mini workshops and book-reading events connecting literature with the environment we invited a natural-farming practitioner from Nanto-shi City in the south of Toyama and local artists came in to exchange ideas with us. We had some voices from visitors such as “It made us happier” and that comes from people’s curiosity and openness in the area. We appreciate people from the local non-profit organisation’s kind support as well as their opinions and encouragement. We, Cinématic Architecture could learn and be influenced a lot by them and that makes us move our challenge forward further away.

*The title of the workshop ‘For the Sake of Anyone Who We Might Not Have Seen Yet’ was taken from the phrase in the novel, ‘The Phoenix Tree ’ by Satoko Kizaki (1985).

The drawing on top by Masumi Nakashima
Other expressions by Tomoko Shoji, Kyoko Sugano, Masao Yonehara, Erina Mori, Madoka Nemugaki, Namio Ohmichi, Yoshiko Takezawa
Produced and curated by Keiichi OgataSponsored byGallery VenereSpecial thanks toMasumi Nemugaki, Seiko Yamashita, Kumiko Ohtsubo, Non-Profit Organisation N-Project Hito, Michi, Machi (human, roads, town), Fumio Isobe, Kanoh Ryohsuke (Guest House Honmacho No Ie), Asako Saeki (Art craft *Life Creation*）, Shigeru AkenoSupported byKitanihon-Shinbun Newspaper inc., The Art and Cultural Bureau of Toyama Prefecture, The Cultural Board of Toyama Prefecture, The Culture and Creation Bureau of Takaoka City, The Education Committee of Takaoka City, The Japan Society of Urban and Regional Planners

Workshop’s webpage (Previous site)