A thicket quietly opens its mouth, forming a green tunnel. Whether it is an animal trail or a well-traveled path you are not sure, but it entices you to keep going farther. You
bend slightly forward, and continue on carefully, step by step. Suddenly, a view opens up in front of you - a vast swamp in absolute silence. You are bewildered by the view, which feels somehow familiar, like a scene that had been buried deep inside your memory.
You take off your shoes and take a delicate step on the surface of the water. Children, who can innocently accept such a view, run around on the surface in excitement. But you - equipped with common sense - already realize that what spreads before you is a seamless surface of mir- rors built outdoors, but didn’t you still hesitate when you took your first few steps? You moved your feet carefully, and peered into the surface that reflects the vast sky, floating clouds, trees swaying in the breeze, and your own visage in reverse.
目[mé]created Elemental Detection outside the former Saitama Prefectural Folklore Museum, and the process of entering the tunnel within the thicket, stepping on the surface of the water, seeing yourself reflected amidst the world in reverse, and finally returning to where you started are all part of the work. This process cannot be divided into parts. The entire sequence of ac- tions and all the varying emotions you experience constitute the work.
We can stand firmly upon the world with our own two feet. However, if you take the tiniest pos- sible view of the world, it reveals a world of uncertainty generated by quanta; and if you take the largest view of the world, it reveals an uncertain world filled with dark matter and dark en- ergy. That is the world we live in.
Like a fissure that appears from time to time to lift the veil from our everyday life, Elemental Detection by 目[mé]was a remarkable installation that allowed us to detect the deepest myster- ies of the world in which continue to live.
Takashi Serizawa (Director, Saitama Triennale 2016)
*extract from Saitama Triennale 2016 Official Catalogue.