When we change, the city changes: An interactive performance about new ways of living

Following research in Manila, Vientiane, Kuala Lumpur, and Tokyo, Manila-based performance-maker JK Anicoche and up-and-coming Japanese architect Rick Yamakawa create an interactive performance. Urban space in Japan comprises “aisles” for going somewhere. This project emerged from the pair’s desire to discover and make “isles” that can be anchored and visited in these aisles. The results radically transform the familiar landscape of the city, presenting insights and inspirations.

Take a route that forms three circuits around the roads of Ikebukuro, covering some 500 meters in 100 minutes... The majority of a city is occupied by alleyway-like “aisles” that exist simply for passing through. The artists behind this project traveled to cities in Asia to research how people live, bringing back what they learned to apply and develop it in the streets of Toshima. Participants travel along routes inside Toshima with performers carrying mobile sandboxes. Together they undertake “practice” discovering and creating “sand isles” as places where people talk and spend time. Let’s start by looking at the city in a new way.