Ai SUGIURA

In Katsurao Village, people who were forced to leave their homes after the earthquake formed a mowing team and began mowing grass at their evacuation sites. Even today, you can still see the mowing team cutting the grass in the village. Especially when summer arrives, not only the mowing team, but someone somewhere is mowing the grass. The growth of the grass in summer is tremendous, and it is not easy for the labor of mowing to compete with that growth.
Grass spreads its roots and leaves in the smallest of spaces. People and grass inevitably coexist with each other in everyday time and the landscape. Through the observation of grass, we can sense the connection between place and people and the passage of time.
As people leave, the land gradually diminishes the traces of people and becomes inhabited by grasses, shrubs, insects, and animals. However, when the land is managed by the people and the grass is cut, the land becomes airy and returns to a landscape where people's lives can be seen.
Through my stay in Katsurao Village, I realized that a landscape suitable for human habitation cannot be obtained without the labor of people cutting the grass.

Through my experiences in Katsurao Village, I transformed it into Video and Mixed-media Media photo-collage.

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葛尾村では、震災後に家を離れることを余儀なくされた人々が、避難先で草刈り隊を結成し、草刈りを始めました。現在でも、村内で草刈り隊が草を刈る様子を目にします。特に夏が訪れると、草刈り隊だけでなく、どこかで誰かが草刈りを行っています。夏の草の成長は凄まじく、草刈りという労力がその成長に対抗するのは容易ではありません。

草は僅かな隙間さえあれば根を広げ、葉を茂らせます。日常の時間と風景において、人々と草が相互に共存することは必然的です。草の観察を通じて、私たちは「場所と人々のつながり」と「時間の経過」を感じ取ることができるのです。

人々が離れ去ると、土地は徐々に人の痕跡を薄め、草や低木、虫、動物が生息するようになります。しかし、人々の手によって土地が管理され、草が刈られることで、その土地に風通しが生まれ、人々の生活が見える風景に戻ります。

葛尾村での滞在を通じて、人が暮らすに相応しい風景は、草を刈るという人の労働を無くしては獲得できないことを実感しました。

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