“Festivals” have long been a source of emotional support and a wellspring of vitality for people, both in the past and today. This work is a video installation centered on celebratory customs and festival events in Tohoku. It seeks to reconstruct the long-standing “special days” traditions of Tohoku by adding new perspectives and interpretations.

One night, in the moments before falling asleep, a robot begins to tell a story to a young girl. Its voice is a little clumsy, somewhat awkward. And yet, there is kindness in its words, as they softly melt into the quiet night. A warm story spun by such a robot.

The contours of life’s existence are ambiguous, not defined by the boundary of the body itself, but by the surrounding environment that is continuous with it. This work is a massive sculpture group that continuously depicts the energy birds actually flying around it impart to the surrounding environment. When birds fly, their energy moves through the environment, such as the air. In the wind blowing here and now, the energy dissipated by the birds is depicted as the present moment’s wind is infused with the memory of the birds flying at this instant, and of the birds that flew from sunrise to sunset today. If no birds fly around the sculptures, this sculpture group becomes completely dark, dissolves into the darkness, and is almost nonexistent. On the island in the pond where the sculptures stand, in order to create an environment favorable to birds, plants that birds like are planted along with the sculptures, including vegetation that attracts the insects birds eat. This sculpture group comes into existence through birds gathering around these plants. However, birds, and insects as well, do not exist solely through the vegetation on the pond island; they exist through the forest and pond ecosystem of the vast botanical garden. The contours of this sculpture group’s existence are also not the boundary surface of a material sculpture, but continuous and ambiguous in relation to the surrounding environment. “teamLab Botanical Garden Osaka” (Nagai Botanical Garden, Osaka) Exhibition details: https://www.teamlab.art/jp/e/botanicalgarden/ Work details: https://www.teamlab.art/jp/w/sculptures_of_dissipative_birds/botanicalgarden/