How can we connect events that at first glance seem far away and unrelated to the place where we live and our everyday lives? In this age of rapid change and inescapable flow, we think it is important to take back our time and try to fight against the tide in our own modest way. Why not join us in thinking more about the present situation and society itself, and trying to find ways to live/resist accordingly?
In the upcoming workshop series “Drawing a Future Topographical Map of Tama Together,” while retracing various events and times, we will think more deeply and carefully about development, growth, disaster, violence, hardship, exploitation, and disparity; the many events that are summed up in these words; disappearing landscapes and the lives of the people that live there; and the things in common to these events taking place in different areas. We will then try to connect the subsequent insights and questions to our own living environment and reconsider our location, the area of Tokyo.
About “re* expressions of living”
The prefix “re” at the beginning of English words creates words that carry the meaning of “again,” “back,” “repeat,” etc. In this workshop series we consider methods for living/resisting – in other words “expressions of living” – using as our keywords three English words that begin with “re”: retrace, resist, and record.
Life is a thing of incessant continuity. It is a continuation of days; a constant retracing of or resistance to something; and the motility of “re” is closely connected to this. In Ten-ei village in Fukushima Prefecture, the unpicking and remaking of old kimonos is called “Borokusuguri.” The process of unpicking and repairing an old kimono and making it wearable again involves the thread and people from different eras and backgrounds. The significance of this act is closely connected to the concept “expressions of living.”
While keeping in mind that encounters with not only humans but all others besides the self, and that the words we speak are a continuous daily occurrence, in these workshops we will repeatedly unravel the questions that arise from our own daily lives and experiences, and receive help to stitch together and overhaul these questions in the manner of “Borokusuguri.”
This year, as well as implementing assignments and lectures with guests, an area of KOGANEI ART SPOT Chateau 2F will be designated as a “workspace” which workshop guests and participants will develop together, and which will be opened regularly as a place where everyone can work autonomously. At the end of the program, participants will have the opportunity to share the thoughts they had and the attempts they made during the workshop series.
Workshop structure
The workshops will alternate between the processes of the “three re’s” comprising the key words “retrace,” “resist,” and “record,” and the process with artists Eiko Soga and Piotr Bujak of “expanding expressions of living,” a process connecting participants’ own questions and attempts.
Overall Schedule〈PDF〉
“Retrace” carries the meaning of follow, follow the path of others, reminisce, and revisit. Rather than just mean you yourself visiting someone or something, to retrace also means to visit the places and times that existed for others, and the act of tracing the people in those times and places.
For the “retrace” lecture we welcome back Yuuki Toyoda, a guest at the 2021 “Drawing a Future Topographical Map of Tama Together” workshop. Toyoda organizes the REBORN project to rescue negative film in areas damaged by heavy rains in southern Kyushu, and she also conducts photography projects that shed light on the memories and records of the people who lived there. Together with our guest, workshop participants will think about the process of continuing to ask questions while they retrace something or someone. Using the resulting insights as pointers, participants will apply their own methods to retrace the places, times, and people they have in mind.
Date & Venue
Friday, December 8 2023 19:00 – 21:00
KOGANEI ART SPOT Chateau 2F
Guest: Yuuki Toyoda (Photographer, Guest of 2021)
The word “resist” essentially translates as “teikou” in Japanese. Resistance takes many forms: in addition to acts such as speaking up, holding demonstrations, etc., indifferently going about what we need to do to live in this absurd world, and living everyday life without being swept away by the world and owning our own time can also be activities related to resistance. In this workshop, we consider the act of “working” as a form of resistance. A “workspace” will be set up in KOGANEI ART SPOT Chateau 2F where we will “resist/work,” and think about the background to various techniques and actions.
Date & Venue
-Saturday, October 14 2023 13:00 – 17:00 KOGANEI ART SPOT Chateau 2F
“Carving/printing” Guest: A3BC (Anti-war, Anti-Nuclear and Arts of Block-print Collective)
-Saturday, October 28 2023 13:00 – 17:00 KOGANEI ART SPOT Chateau 2F
“Composing” Guest: Hiroyuki Agetsuma (artist)
-February, 2023 (*”Period for communicating workshop findings/insights with others”) KOGANEI ART SPOT Chateau 2F “Borokusuguri”
In order to reflect on and understand the situation today, we need to look back in time. The act of recording is one of the things that makes humans human and at the same time encourages reflection. While considering the act of recording and its methods with our guest, the participants themselves explore, think about, and try out methods of connecting to other people through records, before compiling the process as a record.
Date & Venue
-Sunday, September 3 2023 13:00 – 16:00 Codolabo studio, Tokyo Gakugei Univ. Children Institute for the Future
Guest: Junko Takamori (Director, Group for Continuous Documentation of the Great Hanshin Earthquake)
-Saturday, January 1 2024 13:00 – 16:00 KOGANEI ART SPOT Chateau 2F
Guest: Motohiro Sunouchi (Lecturer, Sapporo City University)
Through up-close encounters with the act of creation by our guests, artists Eiko Soga and Piotr Bujak, participants will find their own questions and perform tasks that provide pointers to expanding their awareness and methods for addressing those questions.
Guest: Eiko Soga (artist)
Over four assignments, and through encounters with people and things, we think about the process of generating insights and interest, and how creative activities can convey awareness between people and update their perception of the world without being bound by preconceived notions or scholarship. *Soga will be taking part online from her location in the UK.
Date & Venue
-Saturday, August 5 2023 18:00 – 21:00/ Codolabo studio, Tokyo Gakugei Univ. Children Institute for the Future
-Saturday, August 26 2023 18:00 – 21:00/ Codolabo studio, Tokyo Gakugei Univ. Children Institute for the Future
-Saturday, September 23 2023 18:00 – 21:00/ KOGANEI ART SPOT Chateau 2F
-Saturday, November 4 2023 18:00 – 21:00/KOGANEI ART SPOT Chateau 2F
Guest: Piotr Bujak (artist)
How can we confront various problems in the world, assimilate them and put up resistance to them in our daily lives through creative activities? Through tasks with participants and a residency at KOGANEI ART SPOT Chateau 2F we will think about ways to achieve this.
Date & Venue
Residency at KOGANEI ART SPOT Chateau 2F
-Monday, October 23 – Monday, December 4 2023 KOGANEI ART SPOT Chateau 2F “Workshop on re.DIY (everyday life) and resistance”
-Saturday, November 18, 2023 13:00 – 17:00 KOGANEI ART SPOT Chateau 2F
-Saturday, December 2 2023 13:00 – 17:00 KOGANEI ART SPOT Chateau 2F
＊Details, date/time, and location of each program are subject to change. Participants will be duly contacted in advance.
15 (gender, age and experience irrelevant)
As soon as capacity is reached, we will close applications.
Free (Costs related to fieldwork, research and creation must be covered by the participant.)
Please apply via the application form or FAX.
If applying via the application form, please use the form here to apply.
If applying by FAX, please include your name, email address, telephone number, postal address, date of birth, and reason for applying, and send to FAX：050-3627-9531.
*We ask for your address, date of birth, and telephone number for workshop insurance purposes.
Application deadline
Monday, July 31 2023 (Applications must be received by this date)
*As soon as applications exceed capacity, we will close applications.
*Personal information obtained via the application process will be used only for the purposes of contacting applicants and for operations related to this project.
Eiko Soga
Piotr Bujak
Junko Takamori
Hiroyuki Agetsuma
Yuuki Toyoda
Motohiro Sunouchi
A3BC (Anti-War, Anti-Nuclear and Arts of Block-print Collective)
Artfull Action!(NPO)
Koganei Art Spot Chateau 2F, Chateau Koganei 6-5-3 Honmachi, Koganei City, Tokyo 〒184-0004
FAX: 042-316-7236
Email: mail@artfullaction.net
August 2023 – March 2024
*“Period for communicating workshop findings/insights with others” February6-March3 2023
KOGANEI ART SPOT
Chateau2F, Chateau Koganei 6-5-3 Honmachi, Koganei City, Tokyo 184-0004
Codolabo studio, Tokyo Gakugei Univ.
＃109 Chateau Koganei 6-5-3 Honmachi, Koganei City, Tokyo 184-0004
“Period for communicating workshop findings/insights with others” Gallery of Koganei Art spot Chateau 2F,
Please contact us if you are coming from afar or if it is difficult to participate locally.
Future Topography in Motion, Tama Cleaving Art Meeting
Saturday, February 17 – Sunday, March 3, 2024, 12:00-18:00
KOGANEI ART SPOT Chateau 2F
Art Project, Exhibition / Screening
Future Topography in Motion, Tama Cleaving Art Meeting
Wednesday, January 10 – Sunday, January 28, 2024, 12:00-18:00
KOGANEI ART SPOT Chateau 2F
Art Project, Exhibition / Screening
Future Topography in Motion, Tama Cleaving Art Meeting
・Musashino Civic Cultural Hall ・KF Machikado Hall ・Koganei Kankyo gakushukan
Art Project, Workshop
