Tracks of animals in nature

The artist unit of Floor Hofman (Netherlands) and Willie Wong (Taiwan), finalists for the Longstay Program in 2018/2019, were invited to participate in an online citizens’ workshop “How do you feel, Matsudo?” connecting the Netherlands and Matsudo, and to hold an exhibition of the progress of the online workshop “Seeing from a distance: #documentaryinaction #facesinmatsudo,” at QWERTY, a small gallery in front of Matsudo Station in 2020, in cooperation with the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In anticipation of continuing the project into the next year, we continued to interact and create online in FY2021.

The theme of this workshop was “Tracks of animals in nature”.
When the COVID-19 pandemic began, people disappeared from the streets due to lockdown. People were surprised to hear news from around the world that animals were beginning to appear in areas of life normally dominated by humans. But gradually the situation began to return to normal, and what were the animals going to do in the post-pandemic world? Floor and Willie were concerned about the phenomenon. Will the animals return to nature? Do they stay in the city? Think about what will ultimately happen when our society and our lives are restored to normal and vibrant. That is what this workshop “Tracks of animals in nature” is all about.

It is not usually easy to see the wild animals themselves, but they may have left some traces behind. This program finds a piece of nature and shifts the focus from the human world to the world of nature and animals. By taking pictures and writing GPS coordinates into the photo data, artists in the Netherlands can see where it is happening and how it is happening around them in Matsudo via satellite images. Although it is still difficult to travel to Japan, we can take advantage of the distance and learn about the situation where we both live through the workshop. The workshop also allows participants to connect with other artists beyond national borders.

Each participant went out into the streets of Matsudo to find “animal tracks” and photograph them. Each shared what they found and sent feedback on the workshop to the artists in the Netherlands.

With the arrival of spring, we should feel the buds around us. This workshop will also make you aware of small perspectives that you may have missed. This project will continue as Floor and Willie visit Japan for a residency. Please look forward to it.