Karakurin on Ogijima

I don’t really have much to say about Takashi Imura‘s Karakurin (カラクリン) except that it was interesting.

I’m not exactly sure why, but these mechanical statues seemed strangely familiar, even though I’ve tried to find what they reminded me of without any success so far. From the rare information I could gather about the artist, he’s familiar with these sorts of creations. Maybe I just had the chance to see some of those in the past or something like that.

Really, not much else to say about them except that they were fun to watch and I wish some had stayed more permanently on Ogijima.

I also with I had seen them at their original location as at the beginning of the Setouchi International Art Festival, most of the Karakurin were located in a small restaurant, in front of the windows, in such a way that when one looked at them, one would do so with the Seto Inland Sea as a background.

Sadly as I may have already mentioned, a fire destroyed two buildings, Oscar Oiwa’s artwork as well as a certain number of Karakurin. The pieces that could be saved were relocated to Ogijima’s Soul as you can see in the pictures, which sadly was not the best location for them as they seemed to little and almost insignificant inside that big structure.

Some pieces were also located in front of the Ogi Exchange Center, a building that serves as – if I understood correctly – pretty much everything official on Ogijima: police station, post office, town hall equivalent and whatnot.