The daily activities that have been repeated again and again settle into each place, gradually permeating it, until eventually the place begins to breathe in its own way. This presence is sensed unconsciously through our skin, through touch, before it is ever articulated in words. I understand this as “a priori” — something innate, not derived from experience — and express it by overlapping it with the vegetal elements that are inherently embedded in the human body.

In this workshop, we welcome mind-and-body awareness navigator Yuko Hirayama to the space of gobangura, a storehouse in Karasuma Gojo, Kyoto, which has stood there for approximately 130 years and continues to mark the passage of time. Within this space, we create a cycle that connects the “skin” of the kura — its walls, pillars, and beams — with the skin depicted in Yoko Mazuki’s photographs, the skin of each visitor who steps into the space, and the reciprocal exchange between the visitors’ skin and the skin of the kura itself. From this circulation, the workshop seeks to open forms of perception other than vision — senses that, in our increasingly vision-dominated contemporary world, are in danger of being left behind.

Duration: 40 minutes
Language: Japanese
Capacity: 20
Fee: Free
Reservation method： Please apply via email to [email protected] with your name, number of participants, preferred time, and email address.
Reservation deadline: 4.17 Fri.