In June 2022, Okazaki Kenjiro, the artist of the sculpture "Mount Ida (The boy Paris is still shepherding),” which was installed in the Tachikawa Takashimaya Department Store at FARET Tachikawa (Akebono-cho, Tachikawa, Tokyo), was informed of plans to remove it in February 2023. The details of the plan remain unknown, and the presentation of the plan to the artist has been postponed. This site posted these circumstances.
However,on January 17, 2023, Takashimaya S.C. announced that it was "reviewing the plan in the direction of preserving the work, without its relocation or removal. Although the details have not yet been provided and are still unclear, we respect Takashimaya S.C.'s decision and will temporarily suspend the publication of the background information.
We thank Takashimaya S.C. for their wisdom, and are also grateful for the many opinions and discussions that have taken place during this period.
FARET Tachikawa was built on the site of a former US military base that had been returned in 1977. It is well known that there had been a fierce struggle (the “Sunagawa Struggle”) over the forced expropriation of civilian land by the Japanese government in order to expand this US military base.
The core question that kept running through my mind during the creation of this sculpture, "Mount Ida (The boy Paris is still shepherding)," was, "What is the true public realm, and how do we secure it as a sculptural work?”
From that emerged the concept of placing a blank space that no-one occupies, a no-one’s land, inside the sculpture (and in fact there is an actual ventilation hole in the center of the sculpture above which no-one can stand), and inviting birds and animals to come there by placing plants and nature that have escaped human intrusion. The source of the design concept of this sculpture comes from the ongoing activities of the people of Sunagawa (who are still cultivating the land that was expropriated, for example). In other words, the the inner space surrounded by the fence symbolizes the dignity of the place (cherished and protected by the citizens of Tachikawa), which cannot be invaded (and must not be forgotten) by anyone.
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The sculpture was planned to be installed on the west side of the Takashimaya building, which was the rear of the building at the time of the plan, but it was clear that this would become the center of the new urban axis in the future. Pedestrians descending from Tachikawa Station to the ground level would pass through Kitaguchi Odori and proceed from Tachikawa Kitaguchi Park to the inner part of the FARET Tachikawa district, and through that to Showa Kinen Koen (Showa Memorial Park), along a road that combines art and greenery (initially there were plans to turn it into a grass-covered promenade where people could lie down).
The plan was based on the premise that new facilities would be developed in the northern part of the city, and the area would become very lively. If it had actually been covered with greenery, I think it would have been a better park-like pathway than it is now and would have been even more bustling with people.
A wide road, Hirokoji, which opens onto San San Road and is reached via this path (where Reynaud's sculpture stands), in the future was intended to be the main entrance of FARET Tachikawa. In other words, it was expected that "Mount Ida - (the boy Paris is still shepherding)" would in the future flank the right side of the front entrance of FARET Tachikawa, where it opens to San San Road.
According to this original plan, the front facade of FARET Tachikawa and the axis of the monorail that would be built a few years later would become the center of the new urban axis, and from a moving viewpoint above the monorail, the the urban blocks of FARET Tachikawa, and specifically the work “Mount Ide (the boy Paris is still shepherding),” would stand at the center.
The form of the sculpture was conceived in light of the above considerations. In other words, the form of the sculpture is a response to the changing context in which it is placed (with an eye to the future).
When viewed from the front, the form of the work, which at first glance resembles a gently sloping mountain, acts as the facade of the city (while taking into consideration the wall that rises behind it), and echoes the form of the pediment of a Greek temple (specifically the west pediment of the Temple of Aphaia, which has as its subject the Trojan War).
In this Greek pediment, the compositions of left and right sides are reversed in such a way that if the right side can be said to represent the front view of the tableau, the left side represents the back view. That is, the viewer has the impression of being able to see the composition simultaneously from both sides.
In addition to this, in Mt. Ida, the following operations are included in response to the motion axis (movement of the viewpoint) of the advancing monorail:
Divide a rectangle into two equal parts of the same shape. Leaving the two rectangles overlapping, they are then rotated (twisted) 90 degrees around the major (lengthwise) axis. The two divided forms are opened and arranged in a fan shape (so that the orientation of each of the two forms is reversed). The result is a twisted form like that of a drill bit, with two concavo-convex negative spaces and two concavo-convex positive spaces, for a total of four.
The actual negative space inside the fence encompasses a sanctuary (sacred space) that no one can enter, yet the shape out of the fence is distorted by crushing forces from the outside, creating a swirling negative space, exuding pressure forward and backward.
When creating this sculpture, I thought long and hard about what is most important to culture and whether it should be protected. From the front, the sculpture looks like a gentle hometown mountain. However, these mountains are twisted and intertwined, and even though they are entangled in the various conflicts of history, they are composed as a moving body that dynamically turns and transforms them into the power to move forward.
Just as a whale, which is so large that it seems immobile, is constantly tossed by rough waves and storms as it swims through the ocean, these two forms in Tachikawa, a land with a turbulent history, exchange roles with each other (mutually exchanging vegetation, ecosystems, and information), and can survive in the vortex of history, while protecting within their giant bodies a paradise that no one can invade. These thoughts are embodied in the form of this sculpture.
The "Mount Ida” of the title is like the hometown of the Greek gods. Paris was a shepherd boy, but later he was entrusted with the “Judgment of Paris,” to decide who was the most beautiful woman, a decision that triggered the Trojan War. In this sculpture (at least inside the fence) the boy Paris is still (forever) residing in the peaceful Mount Ida.
What is it that demolishes mountains, pulls Paris into worldly conflicts, and smears him with worldliness? Will Mount Ida vanish like a figment? Will it disappear together with nearly 70 years of history? I think that’s terrifying to contemplate.
