Going up Park Avenue in Shibuya, one ends up at Shibuya PARCO. At that time, the building was in the middle of reconstruction and the site was covered with a temporary enclosure. Most construction sites have a blank wall with no writing on it, but Shibuya PARCO was a little different. Artwork was painted all over the blank walls. The artwork was a collaboration between collage artist Kosuke Kawamura and manga artist Katsuhiro Otomo. On the wall in front of where I stopped, there was another artwork that appeared to be a scene from one of Katsuhiro Otomo's best-known works, AKIRA.
AKIRA, which began serialization in 1982, is suggestive. It is set in Tokyo in 2019, which is supposed to host the Olympics the following year. This is exactly the Tokyo of this year. It is as if he had foreseen the future. But fortunately, in the real world, there is no nuclear war, and Tokyo has not become Neo-Tokyo; it is still Tokyo. For better or worse, the future we imagined 40 years ago may have been much more future than reality.
Dec 2019 IN THE CITY TOKYO | |
ARTWORK SHIBUYA SWING WALL |
No
11316
Shooting Date
Aug 2019
Posted On
December 10, 2019
Modified On
September 26, 2023
Place
Shibuya, Tokyo
Genre
Street Photography
Camera
RICOH GR III