The “Aqua Metropolis Osaka 2009” was held using the theme of “Osaka, living with rivers”, with Furamu Kitagawa (chief director, Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial) and Shinya Hashizume (professor, Osaka Prefecture University) as producers, and with Tadao Ando (architect) as chief advisor. It was held as an urban-style event project with the aim of appealing the aqua metropolis, Osaka, where there is a water corridor in which rivers are running in the form of the katakana character, “ロ(Ro)”, which is rarely seen in the world. Therefore, in this event, we could enjoy looking at most exhibits without charge.

     The main venue of this event was Nakanoshima Park, where we could see various kinds of workshops and events as well as exhibits. Nevertheless, there were so many workshop programs and events that it seemed difficult for visitors to grasp their contents and relationships among the project, rivers and cities. Therefore, I wonder if the theme of the project, “Osaka, living with rivers”, could become familiar to visitors through the events and workshops. It might be true only in my case, but, in the venue, I lost my bearings and was doing nothing but viewing the surface of the river. Lifting my eyes from the river, I found there was a yellow rubber duck far away, which was created by the Dutch artist, Florentijn Hofman.^*1

“The flowing river never stops and yet the water never stays the same. The bubbles that float in the pools, now vanishing, now forming, are not of long duration”. by Chomei Kamono^*2

     In the “Aqua Metropolis Osaka 2009”, the modern artworks could not be found while staying in the same place within the venue. (You had to keep moving from one place to another like rivers!) Particularly, if you wish to view the contemporary artworks which were created ambitiously, you needed to move to the “On-the-Street Venue”. At the venue, we could encounter the site-specific artworks which were displayed utilizing the modern architectures located in the Nakanoshima area. The names of the exhibitors who presented their creations in the venue were as follows: Sadamasa Motonaga, Etsuko Nakatsuji, Tatsuo Kawaguchi, Kenji Yanobe, Hajime Imamura, Eiji Okubo, Josep Maria Martin and Masanori Sukenari [Notes: 3]. While walking around the “Aqua Metropolis”, Osaka, you would find a new aspect of Osaka.

     Among the exhibits which were shown at the “On-the-Street Venue”, Hajime Imamura’s “mushroom-like consideration”, which was created using the space of Tekijuku (important cultural property), gave me the cleanest image. In fact, only this exhibit needed entry fees, but I felt it was more worthwhile seeing than any other exhibits which could be enjoyed for free. This creation evoked for me an image of mineral water which was made using soft water.

     The Tekijuku was established as a private tutoring school, by the Dutch scholar and doctor, Koan Ogata, in the Edo era and is known for having produced a number of famous people, such as Masujiro Omura and Yukichi Fukuzawa, who promoted modernization in the field of politics, ideologies, education and medical care in Japan after the Meiji era. Using a two-story machiya, where such many young people as mentioned above were learning and thinking diligently, Imamura generated a space which was composed of a double-layered structure - the machiya and the garden – in which fungi were growing and parasitizing comfortably. In addition, fungi were living also in the glass case in which old books and materials were displayed. Standing at the space, I felt the history of the building and the equipments and fungi came to sympathize with each other, and then, spores named “time” were emitted from the space. At that time, fungi seemed to make us realize the connection between the “present moment” and the past.

     Did the “Aqua Metropolis Osaka” root itself in the city just as fungi? Only the rivers know the answer.
(Translated by Nozomi Nakayama)

*1

“Rubber Duck Project 2009” (Hachikenya-hama, Aqua Metropolis Oasa 2009, 2009/Aug/22-27/Sep/2009)
http://www.namura.cc/ahiru/index.html

*2

Kousaku Yasuraoka, “Hojoki (Translation and Notes)”, Kodansha-gakujutsubunko, 1980, p.13
English version was made based on the following website.
http://tomoki.tea-nifty.com/tomokilog/2006/12/hojoki_by_kamo__befc.html

*3

Water City Art Corridor, On-the-Street Venue, “Aqua Metropolis Oasa 2009”
The names of the exhibitors and the places where their exhibits were displayed were as follows:
- Sadamasa Motonaga/Etsuko Nakatsuji: Osaka Asahi Building/Asahi Shimbun Building
- Tatsuo Kawaguchi: Osaka Brunch, Bank of Japan, Shibakawa Building
- Kenji Yanobe: Osaka City Hall, Osaka Prefectural Nakanoshima Library, Naniwabashi Station on Keihan Railway
- Hajime Imamura: Tekijuku
- Eiji Okubo: Osaka Security Exchange Building
- Josep Maria Martin: Hotarumachi Pear (Fukushima Pear) Dock
- Masanori Sukenari: Keihan Railway Nakanoshima Line (ventilator exit)

"Aqua Metropolis Osaka 2009"
22/Aug/2009 - 12/Oct/2009
Venue: Nakanoshima Park and several places in Osaka-City