Satoshi Hirose’s Workshop “The Journey of Seed Ball”

As a related project of the 2024 Kinan Art Week “Igoku Tamaru, Mata Igoku”, we will hold a Commons Farm workshop. This year’s workshop is a one-day experience workshop where participants will “make seed balls” in the morning and go to a citrus field in the afternoon to “harvest very early mandarin oranges”.

Morning (9:00-12:00)
The clay ball making workshop was designed with inspiration from “clay balls”, which embody the natural farming method of Masanobu Fukuoka, which is characterized by “no tilling, no fertilizer, no weeding”. Seeds of several types of vegetables and flowers are mixed with clay to make balls, which are then scattered on the field and left to sit. The seeds kneaded into the balls will germinate by sensing the natural environmental conditions. We believe that Masanobu Fukuoka’s ideas and agricultural practices will be a great hint for our Commons Farm, and we hope to share this experience with the participants.

Lunch (12:00-13:30)
We will have lunch at Souzou Cafe while talking about Commons Farm, clay balls, mandarin oranges, etc.

Afternoon (14:30-16:00)
We will visit the local citrus farm, Togari Farm, and experience harvesting very early mandarin oranges while touching the soil and feeling the farm atmosphere together with the other participants.

Date and time: Saturday, September 28, 2024, 9:00-16:00
Venue: Souzou Cafe (Nakayashiki) / Togari Farm (Shimomaru)
Participation fee: 2,000 yen / person (students: 1,000 yen)
*Separate lunch fee required.
*Participation fee must be paid in cash on the day.
*Students must present their student ID card on the day.

Schedule:
9:00-12:00: Making clay balls (@Souzou Cafe)
12:00-13:30: Lunch (@Souzou Cafe)
13:30-14:30: Move from Souzou to Togari Farm
14:30-16:00: Harvesting experience (@Togari Farm)

Sample Image of the Workshop

About the Artist

Satoshi Hirose（Artist）
Born in Tokyo in 1963, Hirose currently lives in Milan. Based in Italy, he has participated in numerous exhibitions in Japan, Asia, Europe, and other parts of the world. Satoshi Hirose is a contemporary artist who creates poetic works using a variety of media, including installations, environmental interventions, performances, sculpture, photography, drawings, and larger-than-life projects. His creative principle is a transdisciplinary imagination that transcends borders and connects heterogeneous cultures and things, and his work consistently attempts to transform invisible concepts into visible ones. He creates expressions that create new value and renew our perception of the world based on everyday experiences and objects. In recent years, he has been working on a long-term project with mothers and children at a mother-child support facility that has been ongoing for 19 years, as well as an art project in which he collaborates with local people to recycle materials used in exhibitions.