LUNA PARK
2015
Exhibition "Living Locally Reconsidering Critical Regionalism"
Arts Maebashi / Gunma, Japan
アーツ前橋 / 群馬
Luna Parks were built around the world at the beginning of the 20th century, and its name remains synonymous with amusement parks, even after many of the parks have closed. Children and adults alike dream of visiting a “different world”, and amusement parks call out to fans of the light thrills, the “indecent” fun, and fictional freaks of amusement parks, drawing them to a momentary world of fantasy.
Western styles became a way to instantly decorate for Japanese people were interested in the West during the period of rapid economic growth in a way that was similar to amusement parks – a means to quickly take us to a lush, different world. The streets and neon lights of the amusement district and the altered half-Japanese, half-Western houses left behind from those rusty times create a mental off-the-map locality that manifests itself as a personal Luna Park with a strange imaginary landscape. As it happens, this city (Maebashi) also has a “luna park”.
20世紀初頭、世界中に建設されたLUNA PARK(ルナパーク)は、多くが閉鎖された後も遊園地の代名詞となっている。人は、大人も子どもも「ここでないどこか」へ旅したいと夢見て、遊園地は少しばかりのスリルやいかがわしさ、作りもののフリークスたちがひと時の非現実へ誘う。
高度成長期 の西洋趣味も遊園地に似て、ここではないどこか豊かな世界へ、手っとり早く連れて行ってくれるハリボテだった。錆びついた「あのころ」が置き去りにされる街並や盛り場のネオンサイン、継ぎ接ぎに増改築された和洋折衷の家々は、記憶の中に住所 のない地域性を形作り、奇妙な心象風景が私のルナパークとなって現れる。偶然にも、このまち（前橋）には『るなぱあく』がある。
