About the artwork

This project is a combination of three perspectives: 1) a view of the village from the outside (balloons of different colors and heights are arranged according to the age of each villager), 2) a view of the village from the inside (expressed in the form of a painting created from an enlargement of an old photo of the village that was borrowed), 3) an experience of the village through participation (in the form of Milky Way Cottage, a place to experience art first-hand). The hopes of the people of Takakura village are reflected in the art. These three views overlap to create a “birth place” that enables every visitor to think back and contemplate “where they’ve come from, and where they’re going.”