8月1日から、オリオン通りにある旧近藤時計店で関口光太郎さんの滞在制作が開始しました。
ガラス張りの建物のため、通りからも制作の様子を見ることができます。近くを通りかかった方々は、子どもからお年寄りまで、店内で進む制作に興味を持ち、足を止めて作品を眺める姿も見られます。日に日に形を変えていく作品が、街を行き交う人々の目を楽しませています。ぐんま未来大学の学生たちも制作に参加しています。関口さんが組み上げた骨組みに、新聞紙とガムテープを使って少しずつ形を加えていく学生たち。大きな作品を前に、黙々と作業を進めている姿が印象的でした。昼休みには、街を歩いて立体的な看板を探し、見つけた看板を実際につくることにも挑戦しました。学生たちがつくった看板は、関口さんによって作品本体の一部として組み込まれています。街の中で見つけたものが、どのように作品へ取り入れられていくのかも、今回の制作の見どころのひとつです。
滞在制作は8月末まで続きます。前橋の街中を訪れる際には、ぜひ旧近藤時計店にも立ち寄り、日々変化していく制作の様子をご覧ください。

Kotaro Sekiguchi has been working on a new project at the former Kondo Tokeiten on Orion Street since August 1.
Because the building has glass walls, passersby can see the project taking shape from the street. People of all ages, from children to older adults, have stopped to look at the work, drawn to the activity taking place inside. As the work changes shape day by day, it has become a point of interest for people passing through the neighborhood. This week, students from Gunma Mirai University also joined the project. Working with the framework assembled by Sekiguchi, the students gradually added forms using newsprint and adhesive tape. Their focused work in front of the large-scale piece was particularly striking. During their lunch break, the students walked around the neighborhood in search of three-dimensional signs and then tried recreating some of the signs they found. Sekiguchi has incorporated the signs made by the students into the main work. How objects discovered in the neighborhood are transformed and incorporated into the work is another point of interest in the project.
The residency project will continue through the end of August. If you are visiting central Maebashi, be sure to stop by the former Kondo Tokeiten to see the project as it continues to change day by day.