ヤン・アルベルト・エッカート、トマス・ヴォーティエ、緑川雄太郎、マティルド・ジャロ

Jan Albert Eckert, Thomas Vauthier, Yutaro Midorikawa, Mathilde Jallot

Akichi—vacant city lots—punctuate Kyoto’s dense urban fabric like gaps in worn textile. At first glance they appear as mere absences. Yet the longer one lingers, the more clearly another city comes into view: spontaneous vegetation, insects, layered soundscapes, the unhurried rhythms of more-than-human inhabitants. These lots are not empty. They are vacant—withdrawn from particular human uses—and in that withdrawal, quietly teeming.

The project starts at Bridge Studio, where a map invites visitors to set out into the neighbourhood on foot—independently throughout the week, or as part of guided Akichi Walks on Saturday, April 25 and Sunday 26. These walks move through the informal ecologies of Jōdōji, gradually leading participants through subtle encounters with spontaneous urban vegetation and overlooked micro-landscapes. In this sense, the walks resonate with the logic of the roji, the garden path that prepares visitors, step by step, for the tea room.

The pathway culminates at Kōnkai Kōmyō-ji temple, where the project unfolds through an exhibition and tea ceremonies over the weekend of April 25–26. The exhibition brings together documentary and expanded photographic views of these spontaneous urban life forms, alongside sound and sculptural elements, by Jan Albert Eckert (urbanist and photographer), Thomas Vauthier (photographer and sculptor), and Mathilde Jallot (urushi / lacquer artist).

The performative dimension of the project culminates in a tea ceremony guided by Midorikawa Yutaro and Thomas Vauthier. Here, sound, images, taste, and presence converge. Jan’s field recordings create a subtle atmospheric layer, while the ceremony becomes the social and sensorial core of the project. The ritual is also a photographic one: Polaroid images emerge in the moment and circulate among participants as fleeting traces of the moment.

Walking, listening, tasting, and viewing become interconnected, inviting visitors to encounter akichi not as voids to be filled, but as living thresholds within the urban fabric—places where the city quietly breathes a yet-to-come future.

空き地 | 空間、非空白 ｜ Akichi | Vacant Not Empty

Exhibition, experiential walk and tea ceremony

2026.4.25 土. — 4.26 日. 10:00–18:00
2026.4.25 Sat. — 4.16 Sun. 10:00–18:00

Venue : Bridge Studio, Konkai Kōmyō-ji temple

ヤン・アルベルト・エッカート、トマ・ヴォティエ、緑川雄太郎、マティルド・ジャロ
Jan Albert Eckert, Thomas Vauthier, Yutaro Midorikawa, Mathilde Jallot

Reservation: Required at http://re-negotiating.space/akichi/