In October, I will travel to Yunotsu, a small town in Japan, for a three-month artist residency. I am going with ideas, questions and a notebook. I am also going to make room for things I cannot yet imagine.
As an interior architect, I have spent years thinking about how spaces shape our lives. Lately, my questions have grown beyond the walls of a room. How does a place hold the memory of work? What happens when buildings are left empty? What can we learn by spending time with the people who continue to care for a place?
Yunotsu offers me a place to explore these questions slowly. During the residency, I hope to listen, walk, photograph, write and learn from local craftspeople and residents. I want to pay attention to ordinary details: a doorway, a material, a conversation, the way a town changes with the season.
This journey is also part of the beginnings of 24 SETSU. Our programme connects Luxembourg and Japan through art, craft, architecture and shared experience. My time in Yunotsu is a chance to build those connections through real encounters, and to let what I learn there inform the projects we create next.
I will use this journal to share notes from the journey: observations, questions, people I meet and ideas as they take shape. Some entries may be brief. Others may follow a question for longer.
I don’t know yet where Yunotsu will lead me. That is one reason to go.
Amber