2015
信濃川を内包する庭
A garden that encompasses the Shinano River
Machiya Gallery Satsumaya, former Warinoya (Niigata)
Stones, clay, pumps, aquariums, monitors, etc.
2015
信濃川を内包する庭
A garden that encompasses the Shinano River
Machiya Gallery Satsumaya, former Warinoya (Niigata)
Stones, clay, pumps, aquariums, monitors, etc.
This work is an installation that condenses and reconstructs the appearance of the Shinano River from its source to its lower reaches, set in the front garden of a townhouse in the Shinano River basin. The entire garden is treated as the area around the Shinano River, and by arranging stones, water, and video works collected from the headwaters of Mt. Kobushigatake, the presence of the river, which has long been intertwined with the lives of the townspeople, is brought to life as a space. In Kosudo, a town that once flourished as a center of river transport, this is an attempt to quietly re-examine the connection between people and nature by superimposing the relationship between the river and the town onto the current landscape.
In the Kosudo ART Project 2015, Yoshitaka Nanjo developed an installation that weaves together the time and landscape of the river, from its source to its downstream, into a single space, centering on the garden of a townhouse that encompasses the Shinano River. The front garden, which forms the core of the exhibition, is land formed on the sediment of the Shinano River, and vast rice fields still stretch out around it today. Kosudo, which flourished as a river port for boat transport from the Edo period to the early Showa period, has transformed its relationship with the river due to flood control and changes in transportation methods, but the townscape still retains strong memories of that time.
In this work, the entire garden is envisioned as the Shinano River basin, and a combination of elements is arranged, including a water tank that circulates spring water drawn from the headwaters of Mt. Kobushigatake, as well as footage of the river's source and documentary footage of bridges. The more than twenty pebbles placed throughout the garden represent the flow of the river from its source to downstream, giving a sense of time to the otherwise static garden. In addition, the projection of images onto the open atrium space transforms the perception of the entire building into one that is inside the river.
Nanjo brings to life the ambiguous relationship between the blessings and disasters brought by the Shinano River, not through direct narrative, but through materiality and arrangement. This work quietly recalls the close relationship that once existed between the river and the townhouses in the present time, and is structured as a space that prompts a reconsideration of the distance between people and landscapes.