I grew up in a cinema theatre, like Toto from the film Cinema Paradiso, sitting on the high stool, peeking through the long, narrow window; watching my dad screen films from the projector. As the theatre was a family-oriented cinema, my dad would censor the love scenes in the projected movies and I, 6 years old at the time, assisted him to cut the films and glue them back together. I still remember the pleasant scent of the film.
During my artist residency in AiRK, in Kobe, Japan, over a breakfast conversation with an AiRK fellow artist resident about our fascination of films, I came to a discovery that now, 45 years later, I am bringing back those censored love scenes back to the light.
These works begin as snapshots from love scenes that have stayed with me; moments of passion, of skin pressed to skin, of two bodies dissolving into one. I chose YUPO for its translucency, allowing me to explore what is revealed and what is hidden, much like skin holding memory: not permanently, not perfectly, but with a tenderness that refuses to let go. I am searching for that specific melting point where the boundary between two people gives way. What remains is a record of intimacy that is still fluid and unmistakably alive.
Photo Credit: Kiyotoshi Takashima
https://airk.haaymm.org/index_en.html#section-artists
AiRK is an independent, grassroots residency program housed in a retro 1950s apartment in Kitano, Kobe, where international and local creators live and collaborate to build cultural community connections.
Based in Kobe, C.A.P. Artist Studios & Gallery is an organization that promotes cultural activities that are not for profit. Carry out various activities that connect society and art.
Rose Garden
Yamamoto-dori, Kitano district, Kobe, Japan
• Architect: Tadao Ando
Rose Garden is widely regarded as one of the earliest significant works of Tadao Ando. Completed in 1977, it predates many of the projects that later made Ando internationally famous.
It is particularly valuable because it shows Ando developing ideas that would later mature in projects such as Church of the Light and Rokko Housing. It offers a rare glimpse into the formative stage of one of Japan's most influential architects.
Rose Garden is unusual among Ando's works because it uses brick extensively on the exterior, rather than the exposed reinforced concrete that later became his signature. The design was intentionally created to harmonize with Kitano's historic streetscape. Gabled roofs, brick walls, and a human-scaled composition help it blend into its surroundings while still expressing modern architectural ideas. At the time of its opening, the complex housed fashionable shops, bars, and cultural venues, becoming a gathering place for Kobe's emerging creative scene.