Before, After Image Koshirakura Landscape 1996-2006

Each summer for the past ten years the AA's Shin Egashira has organized a workshop in the remote village of Koshirakura, in a mountainous region north of Tokyo. Each summer, the 81 mainly elderly inhabitants of the village are joined by a youthful horde of outsiders who become part of their lives for three weeks, occupying the empty schoolhouse, visiting their homes, and contributing to annual rituals such as the Grass-Cutting Day and Maple Tree Festival. When they leave at the end of their stay, the young people leave behind a structure designed to improve in some way the lives of the inhabitants. The past ten years have seen a gradual accumulation of extraordinary and strangely beautiful structures. Their singularity is hinted at by their names: Watermelon Platform, Bus Shelter, Roof for 200, Festival Vehicles, Azumaya, Stargazing Platform . . . Some structures were destroyed by the 2004 Mid-Niigata earthquake, but all are preserved here through photographs, drawings and words that document their making. Texts by Shin Egashira are paired with diary extracts- some poetic, some humorous- written by the students and villagers.