Sunday, October 14, 2007

Potemkin

POTEMKIN - park for post industrial meditation. Drawing Marco Casagrande.

A permanent park for post industrial meditation in Kuramata village, Japan. Commissioned by Echigo-Tsumari Contemporary Art Triennial 2003. A cultivated junk yard as a mixture of a temple and machine. Big industrial park including in and outdoor spaces constructed out of 1 inch thick Kawasaki steel plates, 130 m long, 12 m wide, 5 m high. Other materials used: white gravel, Kama River bottom stones, crushed concrete, crushed glass, wood, volcanic saand, concrete, asphalt.



The park is situated castle like looking over the Kuramata rice fields and Kamagawa River. Potemkin is blessed and spirituously connected to one of the oldest Shinto shrines in Japan.



The working group was put together with operators from Alaska, Norway, England, Japan, Finland and France.

Casagrande & Rintala
Kuramata village, Nijgata province, Japan 2003
Echigo Tsumari Contemporary Art Triennial
Photos: Dean Carman

No comments: