2018
町屋ラボ
Kosudo ART Project 2018
Machiya Labo
Machiya Lab (Niigata)
2018
町屋ラボ
Kosudo ART Project 2018
Machiya Labo
Machiya Lab (Niigata)
The "Kosudo ART Project" was a citizen-led project implemented as part of the Water and Land Art Festival 2018. Yoshitaka Nanjo did not exhibit any artwork, but was in charge of creating a space based in a traditional townhouse and managing the project. Together with local residents, he renovated an empty house to establish the "Townhouse Lab." During the festival, invited artists stayed and created works in public, and the creative process itself was open to the community. It was an attempt to create a place where creation, life, and interaction intersected, using the townhouse, a space that embodies time.
This project was part of the "Kosudo ART Project," an initiative related to the Water and Land Art Festival 2018, and was based at the former Furukawa Residence in Kosudo, Akiha Ward, Niigata City. In this project, Yoshitaka Nanjo did not exhibit his own works, but rather took on the role of planning, spatial design, and development of the production environment, laying the foundation for artists to stay, create, and exhibit their work.
Machiya Lab is a renovated vacant house that was formerly used as a barrel maker, created through DIY efforts by local residents. It is not merely an exhibition space, but is designed as a "place" where artists can stay and open up their creative process. Its distinctive feature is that the act of creation itself is open to the community, rather than the finished works. During the exhibition period, several artists participated, creating works in public while responding to the spatial composition of the machiya and the surrounding environment.
Kosudo is a rural town that developed through river transport on the Shinano River, and its urban structure has remained largely unchanged despite the shifts in transportation systems since the modern era. Machiya Lab is positioned not as a place to preserve its historical heritage, but as a device to move time again through contemporary creative activities.
Nanjo's interest lies not so much in the artwork itself, but in how to design the "environment" and "relationships" in which the creation process takes place. This project is positioned as a practice that reorganizes the relationship between the community and art by creating a space where exhibition, creation, and daily life loosely overlap.