Aichi Triennale 2019
At Aichi Triennale 2019, we experienced a work by Takahiro Iwasaki.
The venue was the Ito Family Residence in the Shikemichi / Endoji area, where he shared the site with Michiko Tsuda, each using a different section of the space.
The Ito Family Residence in the Shikemichi area is a merchant house built around 1722 (Kyoho 7) by a family that relocated from Kiyosu. It is designated a Tangible Cultural Property of Aichi Prefecture as well as an Important Cityscape Building of Nagoya. Shikemichi and the neighborhood around Endoji are precious survivors — among the parts of Nagoya that were reduced to ashes by wartime air raids, this district was one of the few to be spared.
The residence consists of a main dwelling with the honke, new drawing room, and south drawing room, along with the kura (storehouse), new dozo, west storehouse, saikura and other structures, and a generous garden.
This piece places a castle town, burned down in the air raids, inside the Ito Family Residence — a building that has itself survived the centuries — and I was stunned that the material was charcoal. Whether the scene it depicts is one from the past or one that might still remain in the future, the work seems to press us with a question about time.
The making of Takahiro Iwasaki’s works has always fascinated me.
How on earth does he build them?
