Dialectical Landscape

This exhibition takes “Earthwork” as its central keyword. Here, rather than limiting the term to artworks made with earth that emerged since the 1960s, we adopt a broader perspective, understanding “earthwork” as a site where the formative processes of the earth itself—such as sedimentation and erosion—interact with human acts of shaping, including excavation, backfilling (as well as carving and modeling). From this perspective, civil engineering structures such as tunnels and embankments are also considered within its scope. The venue, Art Center New, is located within Shin-Takashima Station on the subway line. This site was once part of the sea, submerged by rising sea levels due to post-glacial warming since approximately 10,000 years ago. During the Meiji period, it was reclaimed in the course of railway construction and other developments, and later excavated significantly for the construction of the subway station. Even today, as the space lies below the groundwater level, water continues to seep through the walls. In this sense, the site itself can be regarded as an “earthwork” in motion, continuously shaped by ongoing processes. In this exhibition, by embracing such sites—where the formative forces of the earth and human interventions respond to one another—as expanded “earthworks,” we present works by ten artists and collectives, alongside forms that are not conventionally considered artworks. Starting from the notion of “earthwork,” the exhibition seeks to traverse various modern binary oppositions—such as human and earth, site and non-site, material and idea—and to observe the landscapes that emerge through their dialogue, here in Yokohama.