Installation, 2025
Chiba, Japan
Design: ZHANG Jie
Technical Support & Fabrication: Masashi Atsumi
Built with Tingyu (Amber) Hu, Takashi Iwasawa
For Chiba City Arts Triennale 2025
Project Director: Takashi Iwasawa
Project Manager: Hideyo Ryoken
Project Coordinator: Tingyu (Amber) Hu
Unlike conventional artworks, it remains open-ended, acquiring form only through participation. Over two months it becomes a living archive of dialogue, a polyphonic mural shaped by diverse voices. This approach aligns with the Chiba Triennale’s theme Social Dive: art moves beyond museums, appearing in semi-outdoor passages or station plazas as a chance encounter.
The dialogues it generates are unpredictable—a child’s sketch beside a stranger’s confession—yet together they compose a collective narrative. The circular structure both disrupts routine transit zones and symbolizes inclusion and renewal. Built from modest, easily assembled materials, it reflects a commitment to sustainability and mobility.
Ultimately, Mr. Board prioritizes openness and relationality over monumentality. Its value lies not in permanence but in the encounters it enables—moments of reflection, kindness, and shared authorship that reimagine togetherness within urban life.
More details: https://artstriennale.city.chiba.jp/en/projects/2025-32/
The installation consists of twenty laminated timber panels, each 3 centimeters thick. Four people completed the assembly in about three hours. The panels are connected with pre-bent bolts, a detail designed to allow the structure to be easily dismantled and reassembled at new sites.
The installation is currently placed in a semi-outdoor space at the Hanamigawa Ward Office in Chiba. Since the ward office houses a children’s library, many people pass through this area on their way to and from the library. Curious about the sudden appearance of a giant blackboard, they often pause to take a closer look.
People of different ages naturally began to use the blackboard without any instruction. They observed the messages left by others and responded through drawings and words, creating an organic form of interaction.
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