About the artwork

The Creative Garden project started in the autumn of 1999. It required site investigations and workshops running side by side until full-scale construction work began at the site in July 2002. In May 2003, about 150 people, from children to the elderly, local community volunteers, people from the town office and the Kohebi-tai Triennial support group planted 12,000 flowers to complete the project. The most important issue for me was how to create a public park based on the assumption that the public is the accumulation of the personal, to make a space where individuals take the initiative and control how the space is used. At this garden, whose form recalls terraced paddy fields, people will plant in proper season and appreciate the flowers that result from their efforts. I sincerely hope that this place becomes a space for free and open communication.