At the “NEO-CITY ART EXHIBITION” held at ZERO-SITE Takanawa Gateway, we presented Drawing on Space: Takanawa Gateway.
On-site production was carried out in advance at Takanawa Gateway Station, TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITY, and the exhibition venue ZERO-SITE, incorporating the memory of the space and the context of the place into the work.

At the venue, visitors experienced the drawings created at ZERO-SITE through VR goggles (Apple Vision Pro), while additional drawings produced at Takanawa Gateway Station and TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITY were presented as video installations.

The exhibition was organized as part of “ZERO COMMUNE vol.4 feat. Hyper geek”, and included a talk session featuring Naohiro Ukawa, Kenichi Kawamura, Junichi Takekawa, Junji Tanigawa, and Synichi Yamamoto.
 
Exhibition Information

Drawing on Space: ZERO-SITE Takanawa Gateway

Drawing on Space seeks to paradoxically grant digital drawings—characterized by their lack of physical mass and ability to appear anywhere—the site-specific constraints of a particular location, thereby forming a pictorial presence.

At the “NEO-CITY ART EXHIBITION” held on July 27, 2025, a work was created and exhibited at ZERO-SITE, existing only within that particular space. Because it was a work dependent on ZERO-SITE—a venue that was itself limited to the period until August 2—its existence disappeared with the closure of the space, despite being digital data that should not decay.

Or perhaps, it has lingered on as a kind of earthbound spirit, deprived of its dwelling place.

Drawing on Space: Takanawa Gateway Station

Takanawa Gateway Station, the first new station on JR East’s Yamanote Line in 49 years, partially opened on March 14, 2020, and after surrounding development, was fully opened on March 27, 2025, in conjunction with the Phase 1 grand opening of TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITY.
The architectural design was overseen by Kengo Kuma, and the station was conceived as a model case of 21st-century urban design under the concept of “station and city as one.”

Within the station, an area known as Eki Park has been created, covered with artificial turf. On weekdays it was often used by adults resting or lying down, while on weekends it came alive with children running about. The Drawing on Space project carried out there was even influenced in its gestures by the cushioning of the ground underfoot.

Textures were sampled from the artificial turf, the wood used in the station’s construction, and the station name signage in Ming-style typeface that provoked much debate upon the station’s opening, and were incorporated as materials for the drawing. In addition, the street piano installed beside Eki Park, decorated with colorful handprints believed to be those of local children, was also used as a source of texture.

Although these materials remain new, and thus lacked the accumulated grime, wear, and peeling surfaces that in previous Drawing on Space works have embodied “the memory of place” and “the traces of time,” they nonetheless served to record the starting point of a history that will be layered upon this site from here on.

Drawing on Space: TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITY

Upon exiting the ticket gates of Takanawa Gateway Station, one is immediately faced with Gateway Park, the largest plaza within TAKANAWA GATEWAY CITY.
When Drawing on Space was carried out in early July, the site was dominated by Emmanuelle Moureaux’s installation 100 colors no.53 – Path of 100 Colors, which defined the chromatic atmosphere of the plaza. Its scenery and textures were sampled and woven into the drawing as pictorial matière.

By the end of July, when the site was revisited for documentation, the installation period had ended and the scenery had been completely transformed. Art shapes the landscape of the city—and then vanishes without hesitation. In this drawing, the memory of a landscape that no longer exists remains preserved as texture.

In Gateway City, an autonomous mobility service called Iino operates. The lines drawn while riding Iino trace the trajectory of a vehicle that continues moving at a steady 5 km/h. Passengers cannot choose its destination, nor is one indicated. Iino says: “Here, many robots are at work. A landscape where people coexist with robots is an everyday scene in this city.