Raumsagashi

Dialogue Exhibition with Suse Itzel and Mayuko Kudo

At the Japanese Culture Center of the Japan Foundation in Cologne, located in Germany, a Japanese-German dialogue exhibition takes place once a year. In this exhibition, a group of Japanese and German artists is selected to showcase their works. I collaborated with the German artist Suse Itzel, and we worked together from the concept to the exhibition. We started with a structure that relates to the location of the Japanese cultural institute and merged our two distinct artistic aspects to intertwine the building, the exhibition space, and our own past elements. We blended our personal experiences from childhood to youth, making them accessible to both sides by combining our own space with the outdoor space.

Exhibition Information
“Dialog Exhibition” The Japanese Cultural Institute in Cologne continues its project of so-called dialogue exhibitions, where works by one Japanese and one German artist are displayed. The goal of the exhibition is to facilitate artistic dialogue between mostly younger, promising artists who must apply as a pair. Organizer: Japanisches Kulturinstitut (The Japan Foundation)

https://co.jpf.go.jp/veranstaltungen/kalender/raumsagashi/

Raumsagashi  – Shoji

2020
Interactive Animation
woods, ten-key, Shoji

80 x 15 x 5cm,
156 x 208 cm

Experience
Push the button in front of the shoji, and you will see an animation of making a hole on the shoji with a finger.

Technical Description
The animation works by the processing, which interacts with the button.

Concept
Childhood memories. When I found a clean Shoji (Japanese paper wall), I licked my finger and stuck it in. For some reason, the view from the hole I made looked completely different from what I normally see. The curiosity and tension that the Shoji hides me from the outside world and allows me to observe the outside from the safety zone. My mother was always angry at me when I made many holes. But I thought that if one was made, two or three wouldn’t matter. The memory can be virtually re-experienced through an existential Shoji.

Raumsagashi – Animation

2020

Digital Animation
4K/ 6m6s
collaboration with Suse Itzel

Concept
Suse Itzel and I attempted a dialogue format to exchange texts about our childhood memories.

Story
Suse’s childhood memories are awakened by seed of burdock. She recalls being sticked many burdock seeds to her and her friend’s clothes along the riverbank. And the memory of surroundings of that time comes back intensely.

I told her that I remember the smell of preparing dinner when I saw the square objects. Based on the dialogue between us about memories, the memories of each are blended in the virtual space. Marcel Proust’s “In Search of Lost Time” tells about his body, things, and memories. As we quote this passage, we search for a body that reminds me of myself, within a building where memories and reality are intertwined, and spaces are replaced.

Technical Description
The animation is created based on the 3D scan data in this building using Unity.

Raumsagashi Puzzle

2020
MDF board, Acrylic, 3D Print, Incjet Print

80 x 80 x 80 cm

This puzzle is created by dividing the Japan Cultural Institute in Cologne into cubes. Viewers can freely rearrange and stack the pieces as they play. The intricate details such as toilets, windows, doors, elevators, and more are reproduced using 3D printers and laser cutters. Once the space is rearranged, one must remember the layout of the building well in order to put it back together. This provides an opportunity to reconsider one’s own space and its memories, which are often overlooked in everyday life.

Raumsagashi – Pointcloud

2020
Color Print
100 x 58 cm

Technical Description
Created based on point cloud data obtained by scanning the building with a 3D scanner.

Concept
Unknown places and buildings can be ambiguous and difficult to remember. I scan the space and enclose it into a point cloud. When reconstructed based on memory, rooms, corridors, stairs, and gardens are located in random positions, forming a completely different shape from the original space and structure. The accumulation of points that imprinted the light at that moment precisely captures the object back then, but its surface and outlines are peeled off, and the boundary that separates the interior and exterior of the building, the memory of the space, becomes ambiguous.