LEARN program “Seeing the City as a Coordinator”

LEARN

2025.08.02 Sat.-2025.08.05 Tue.

As part of the volunteer host program for “Let’s Experience 2025,” organized by the Matsudo Citizen Activities Support Center, a two-day workshop was held for teenagers and people in their twenties living in Matsudo City.

This program was planned with the aim of opening up, through hands-on experience, what kinds of work and practices are involved in the arts for younger generations living in the community. The work of coordinators who connect artists and the city—such as operating a base, facilitating dialogue, creating spaces, and building relationships with the city—is also an essential part of art-related practice in Matsudo. The program was designed as an opportunity to share and learn from these practices together with the participants.

On the first day, as an introduction, the background of PARADISE AIR, its daily operations, and past activities were presented. In addition, perspectives on how coordinators view the city, as well as how relationships are built with visiting artists and local residents, were shared. Participants were then asked to reflect on places in their own neighborhoods that they would like to introduce to artists, along with landscapes, shops, and cultural elements that had caught their attention. Rearticulating one’s familiar living environment for others is also a way of reexamining one’s relationship with the city.

On the second day, participants gave presentations and took part in a walk through the city. Each participant spoke about the areas where they spend time and the places they wished to introduce, while visiting artists also shared their works, activities, and their own local contexts. Afterwards, the group walked together around the Matsudo Station area, discussing places, asking questions, and pausing along the way to interact. Through the simple act of walking, participants were able to experience how artists observe places, listen to people’s stories, and engage with the culture and everyday life embedded in the environment.

This program provided an opportunity to learn about PARADISE AIR as a space where people of different cultures, ethnicities, languages, and generations intersect. At the same time, it offered local young people a setting in which they could more concretely imagine what it means to engage in art-related practices. It became a space for shared learning, where participants could understand that art is not only about creating or exhibiting works, but also about meeting people, shaping environments, reinterpreting the city, and spending time with others from diverse backgrounds.