Tweeting Socks

2016  /  Performance, Photograph and Installation 

Supported by Het Entrepot and GoneWest

Collaboration with manoeuvre 

ベルギーのフランダース地方の第一次戦争100周年のプロジェクトGoneWestで、
ブルージュの文化施設 Het Entrepot のアーティスト・イン・レジデンスプログラムのなかで制作。老人、母親、子ども、移民、難民、アーティスト、軍で働く人、それぞれに
 ① 第一次世界大戦や現在の戦争について、それぞれの人々に話をきく（テキストでのやりとり+対面） ② その話の中の短い文章や単語をいくつか拾う ③ 拾った文章や単語を靴下に刺繍する

 ④それぞれの人が自分の言葉が刺繍された靴下を履き、ブルージュの広場マルクトで時間を過ごしてもらう（フリッツを買って食べる、 スマートフォンをチェックする、自転車を押しながら歩く、などの日常的なタスクを指示）

写真作品：
靴下を履いたそれぞれの人のポートレート（各 2150 mm x 700 mm)

Tweeting Socks was part of Gone West, a cultural project commemorating the centenary of World War I, held in Flanders between 2014 and 2018. The project was organized by the cultural organization Het Entrepot in Bruges, Belgium.

For this work, seven individuals from diverse backgrounds—an elderly woman, a mother, a child, an immigrant, a refugee, an artist, and a navy man—were interviewed about World War I and modern-day conflicts. From these interviews, selected words and phrases—not bold political slogans, but quiet, personal expressions—were used to design original socks as a form of wearable placard.　The words were embroidered onto the socks in collaboration with immigrant textile workers at the studio manoeuvre in Ghent, Belgium. The finished socks were then given to the interviewees. Following this, the participants were invited to spend time in the public square Markt in Bruges, wearing the socks while engaging in simple, everyday actions—buying fries, checking their phones, walking a bicycle—blending into the rhythm of daily life.

Large-scale photographic portraits were also produced, capturing the participants wearing the socks amid landscapes where histories lie dormant. (Each photograph: 2150 mm × 700 mm)