UTSUSHI YO The Installation transformed the Ryuanji Temple hall into an imaginable Western Pure Land, which is as if it were floating on water. The audience is invited to stay as long as they wish in the installation, and wonder if the world reflected on the pond’s surface is paradise, or the real world? This building was designed by the architect Goichi Takeda, inspired by the Phoenix Hall built in the Heian era. The meaning of the title UTSUSHI YO refers to the real world, the world we live in now. The word UTSUSHI also means reflection.
作品の詳細は《こちら》をご覧ください。 For more information, please click here.
This year, the installation “Evocation,” created in memory of the kuri (former kitchen) of Ryuanji Temple, which was severely damaged in a typhoon in 2018, will be revived. Visitors pick up white rice cake-like stones and carry them to the site as a token of gratitude for donations. Through this participatory artwork, visitors will wander through time, reflecting on the various connections that the kuri once held – between heaven and earth, light and shadow, food and fire, the reception hall and the kuri, and villagers and monks.
作品の詳細は《こちら》をご覧ください。 For more information, please click here.
「蜃気楼階段/Maranola」は、荒川修作＋マドリンギンズの晩年の作品「Biotopological Scale-juggling Escalator」に着想を得て製作した。コム・デ・ギャルソン社とのコラボレーションによって実現したこの作品は、ニューヨークの市内にあるDover Street Market の３階と4階をつなぐ実際の階段である。“Reversible Destiny Lifespan Extending Module”（寿命延長モジュール）と呼ばれている。実際の建築の一部で機能的な階段でありながら、階段の素材や色は段ごとに違え、歩行のリズムや登り降り時の身体感覚を多様にし、体験者の空間の認識を活性化する。そして、その階段の壁面にはいくつかのモジュールの“部屋”（wing）の縮小モデルが埋め込まれており、それらを通して体験者が自分自身の大きさ・環境の大きさを相対的に感じ、日頃慣れ親しんでいる身体感覚を揺さぶることが期待された。「階段を上り下りすること」を通じて、身体が自分を取り巻く空間（建築的環境）と新しい関係を持ち、認知・感覚が刺激されることを狙っている。
「蜃気楼階段/Maranola」誕生の背景
「蜃気楼階段をイタリアで展示してください」今年の春、そんな嬉しいラブコールをいただいた。2025年8月28〜30日にイタリアのMaranola行われるPublic Art Biennale で展示し、レクチャーもしてほしいということ。先日、来日されていたイタリア人のキュレーターの方に、昨年大阪で試作した「蜃気楼階段」の写真を見せながら「手続き型建築」研究の話をしたのがきっかけだった。そこで設計図面をイタリアに送り、現地で「蜃気楼階段」の制作を進めてもらうことになった。
“Mirage Stairs/Maranola” – Scale-Juggling Escalator – Report on the “Mirage Stairs” Project in Maranola, Italy
2025.9.29 Yumi Kori
“Mirage Stairs/Maranola” is a mockup of a new “procedural architecture” created in the medieval town of Maranola, Italy. “Procedural architecture” is a concept of architecture advocated by artists Shusaku Arakawa and Mudslinging. Architecture is typically used in everyday life through numerous “procedures” in relation to the human body. “Procedural architecture” is architecture intentionally designed to reexamine known “procedures” and create new relationships and environments between architecture and humans. “Procedural architecture” has a “method of use,” and the idea is that by using it in accordance with that method, humans are reshaped and their divine will is reversed.
I will explain the background and circumstances behind the creation of this new “Mirage Stairs/Maranola” in Italy later, but first, I would like to explain the work itself.
About the Installation Location: The site is located in Maranola, a medieval walled city on the west coast of Italy, on a plateau between Rome and Naples. Because the city is built along the undulating terrain of the mountains that rise steeply from the coast, there are almost no flat roads; instead, it is a complex network of sloping alleys and staircases. These staircases also extend into the homes, with several houses stacked on top of each other intricately, extending upward. At the top of the stairs, one is invited to a rooftop terrace offering a panoramic view of the surrounding mountain and seascape. In this town, the earth, the city, homes, and life are organically connected by stairs.
Residents of this town are surrounded by stairs every day, both on the street and in their homes. From birth to death, they ascend and descend them countless times as needed. For those born and raised in this town, stairs are part of the earth, part of the city, and part of the architecture; they are an essential part of daily life. The Mirage Stairs were installed in a small courtyard in the middle of this staircase-filled town.
Transforming the courtyard into “procedural architecture.”
The small courtyard, with its eight staircases and seven houses intricately intertwined vertically and horizontally, resembles a three-dimensional Escher painting. In this project, I attempted to transform the courtyard into “procedural architecture” through the staircases that are most familiar to the people of Maranola. First, I investigated the orientation of the seven existing staircases and installed two “frame staircases” with different vectors suspended in the middle of the square. The lower one is approximately half the size of a regular staircase, while the upper one is approximately two-thirds the scale. To make them appear unconstrained by gravity, the upper “frame staircase” is turned upside down and suspended in the air at a slight angle. I then painted them with fluorescent paint so that they glow after sunset. The existing stairs, visible during the day, are shrouded in darkness at night, leaving only the floating frame staircase visible.
How to Use “Mirage Stairs/Maranola”
Climbing and descending the intricately intertwined courtyard stairs, visitors can stop wherever they like to view the two floating “Frame Stairs” and seven existing staircases from various heights and directions. Enjoy the sensation of the courtyard’s shape changing and the sense of being upside down depending on your perspective. Depending on your location, the “stairs” may appear different in size or upside down, and your own body may appear larger or smaller, disrupting your sense of balance. By shifting your perspective, you can imagine the “stairs” not as something to climb, but as a gateway to another world that may lie beyond.
After sunset, the existing stairs disappear, allowing viewers to recognize their existence through their physical senses as they ascend and descend. At the same time, imagine climbing the inaccessible “Frame Stairs” and enjoy the discrepancy between physical and visual spatial awareness.
Access your “procedural memory” with a sense of bewilderment.
The two “frames” floating in the air are the familiar shape of stairs, so people who see them immediately recognize them as “stairs.” However, in reality, they are made of thin frames and cannot be climbed. Furthermore, they are scaled down compared to regular stairs, and are significantly smaller than the size an adult can functionally ascend and descend. Furthermore, they are floating in the air, with the upper steps hanging upside down at an angle. After people see them and recognize them as “stairs,” a process occurs in their brains to determine whether they are actually large enough to ascend using their own bodies. This likely causes people to go back and forth between their physical sensations and spatial perception. Furthermore, as people ascend and descend the actual stairs in the courtyard, they perceive the frame stairs from various angles, and will likely feel confused between stairs they can climb and stairs they cannot. Through the sensations they acquire here, new relationships will be formed between “stairs” and people, and ultimately between architecture and people, and between the town and people, and the courtyard itself will be transformed into “procedural architecture.” Considerations on Scale-Juggling
How the human brain interprets scale and links it to behavior has been studied in the fields of psychology and cognitive science. First, visual information is transmitted flatly to the retina, so initially, the difference between the size of an actual object and a scale model is indistinguishable. However, it is said that the brain takes into account information such as light, shadow, and depth, and refers to empirical data to understand scale. It then translates this into bodily sensations, which are then used to simulate, judge, and act internally. In other words, when ascending or descending a real staircase and encountering a “staircase” that is subtly different in size and cannot actually be climbed, the experiencer’s brain, perception, procedural memory, and bodily sensations interact in a different way, potentially updating their “architectural body.”
Concept of the Mockup
By experiencing an existing staircase while viewing a subtly scaled-down version from various angles, we hope to enable viewers to gain a sense of their own relative size and that of their surroundings. We also hope to develop a keen awareness of their own body in relation to space, including their feet, hands, weight distribution, sense of balance, and eye movements. The idea was for the color, shape, inclination, and form of this staircase to create a sense of discomfort and dissonance, shaking up people’s physical senses and spatial perception, and bringing freshness to everyday spaces. Furthermore, stairs are not simply functional; they have the power to appeal to the viewer’s emotions and inspire their imagination. It is my hope that this piece will further expand people’s physical awareness through their imagination.
“Biotopological Scale-juggling Escalator”
“Mirage Stairs/Maranola” was inspired by “Biotopological Scale-juggling Escalator,” a late work by Shusaku Arakawa and Madeline Gins. This piece, realized in collaboration with Comme des Garçons, is an actual staircase connecting the third and fourth floors of Dover Street Market in New York City. It is called the “Reversible Destiny Lifespan Extending Module.” While functional and part of an actual building, each staircase features a different material and color, diversifying the rhythm of walking and the physical sensations experienced while ascending and descending, stimulating the viewer’s spatial awareness. Scaled models of several modular “rooms” (wings) are embedded in the staircase’s walls, allowing the viewer to sense their own relative size and the size of their surroundings, potentially challenging their familiar physical perceptions. The goal is for the body to develop a new relationship with the surrounding space (architectural environment) through “climbing and descending the stairs,” stimulating both cognition and sensation.
Background to the Creation of “Mirage Stairs/Maranola”
“Please install Mirage Stairs in Italy!” This spring, I received such a delightful request. They asked me to exhibit it and give a lecture at the Public Art Biennale, to be held in Maranola, Italy, from August 28-30, 2025. It started when I was talking to an Italian curator Isabella who was visiting Japan recently about my research into “procedural architecture,” showing her photos of the “Mirage Stairs” prototyped in Osaka last year. We agreed to send the blueprints for the “Mirage Stairs” to Italy and have them proceed with the construction in Italy.
However, in early August, I received an urgent call from the curator. They told me that they couldn’t get the materials they had planned, so they couldn’t build the “Mirage Stairs” as planned. The program for the Biennale had already been announced. They absolutely had to build the “Mirage Stairs.” So, they asked me to build a “Mirage Stairs” using materials available locally, with the technical skills of local craftsmen. However, in order to quickly come up with a feasible alternative that followed the concept of the “Mirage Stairs,” I absolutely needed to go to Italy. So, I quickly flew to Italy earlier than planned. When I visited the courtyard in Maranola where I planned to install the work, I found it to be much smaller than it appeared in photographs. However, upon counting, I discovered a total of seven staircases and eight houses intertwined in three dimensions, creating what appeared to be an immeasurable expanse of space. This led me to the idea of creating a new procedural architectural mockup, “Mirage Stairs/Maranola,” focusing on “size” and “scale.” Furthermore, because I felt a spatiality reminiscent of an Escher painting, where the sky and the earth are turned upside down, I wanted to create a work that also taps into the “sense of heaven and earth.” I also became interested in the perception of how the same object appears differently depending on whether it is practical or non-practical.
Future Outlook
I spent about three weeks in Maranola creating this work. During that time, I noticed many things. First of all, in Maranola, a city full of slopes and stairs, the elderly are overwhelmingly energetic. Perhaps climbing and descending stairs every day strengthens their legs and backs. But that’s not all. Most of Maranola’s stairs were either created naturally to fit the terrain, or as a result of repeated extensions. This means that almost every staircase is different in width, slope, tread, and riser dimensions. They are also slightly distorted in angle, and the stone and tile materials used are different. As a result, the residents of the city are forced to carefully ascend and descend the stairs, relying on visual information to recognize these details, while checking the sensation of their feet with each step and balancing their bodies. In a sense, the city itself seems like a “procedural architecture.” I believe that by investigating this city in the future, I may be able to find inspiration for future “procedural architecture” ideas.
When I visited my friend’s house in Bern, the capital of Switzerland, I found a mysterious piece of art hanging on the dining room wall. However, upon closer inspection, I realized it was not a painting, but a simple wooden tray. According to my friend, this is not an art piece, but a functional device that can be used as a tray when needed.
However, when I stare at the tray, I feel a strange feeling. Perhaps because trays are made with the assumption that something will be placed on them, when I look at the tray, I perceive a vector of load perpendicular to the bottom plate of the tray, and I can see a glass that has been toppled over, a coffee cup, and water and coffee that are trying to escape from them. I was happy that my heart and imagination were working, and I could see something invisible, so I spoke to my friend. This is a work of art!
So I thought of a title for the piece together with my friend. My friend suggested “Waiting.” It certainly was a good title. The empty tray was waiting for guests, hot tea to be poured on it, and for a pleasant afternoon of conversation. As I was looking at the tray, I suddenly smelled the aroma of delicious cookies baking.
