The farm's symbol, the parabolic field
Minna no Uen Kitakagaya has a field shaped like a parabolic antenna. It is "Parabolic Farm," a work by contemporary artist Osamu Kokufu. We installed it permanently on the farm in October 2013, and ever since, loved by many people, it has kept growing a variety of crops.
With Mr. Kokufu and the citizens' workshop "FABLAB Kitakagaya," we also made the farm's mobile seat, "Minna Cargo." It was an idea born from farm members' needs, given shape by three parties: the artist, the engineers, and ordinary people taking part in the farm. That we could do something found nowhere else, from either the art side or the farming side, was thanks to Mr. Kokufu's warm personality and his curiosity that drew everyone in.
A memorial exhibition on the farm
In April 2014, just as we were looking forward to all the activities we might expand, Mr. Kokufu passed away suddenly. Everyone involved with the farm was filled with grief.
To share our feelings for Mr. Kokufu, and to let many people see this "living work" in which crops keep growing, we decided to hold a memorial exhibition on the farm. It ran from October 19 to November 16, 2014, at the second field, with free admission, jointly planned with and supported by the Osaka Sozo Chishima Foundation. Besides Parabolic Farm itself, we showed related drawings and the rough sketches that could be called the starting point of Mr. Kokufu's work. The exhibition was also introduced in newspapers and on web media.
A farm that continues alongside the work
In 2016, the second anniversary of Mr. Kokufu's passing, we maintained the parabola, which had begun to rust a little, in an "Open Maintenance" session anyone could join. Looking after the work became a time to remember Mr. Kokufu.
Art placed in a field rather than a museum changes its face with the seasons, and you can even harvest from it. A new relationship among machines, nature and people. That question Mr. Kokufu posed still stands in the scenery of the farm.