POTEMKIN

Potemkin stands as a post industrial temple, the Acropolis to re-think of the connection between the modern man and nature.
The park is founded on an illegal garbage dump. The architecture was drawn on site in 1:1 scale on snow by walking the lines with snow-shoes and then built up when the snow melted.

The rice farming village of Kuramata is dying. The younger generations have moved to Nijgata, Tokyo and other cities and the traditions of hundreds of years are about to disappear very rapidly; traditions that are based on a harmonious co-existence between the man and nature – human nature as part of nature. Potemkin celebrates Local Knowledge and by providing an industrial ruin it is providing hope.

Commissioned by Echigo-Tsumari Contemporary Art Triennial 2003