• Issue
  • May 01, 2022

Tsubasa Kato: Collective Possibilities

Portrait of TSUBASA KATO. Photo by Kana Tarumi. Courtesy the artist.

Ichi, Ni! Ichi, Ni!” A rhythmic voice chanting “one, two! one, two!” is heard across the open space in a park. The voice is Tsubasa Kato’s, who was leading a group of people pulling ropes to topple a two-to-three-meter-tall structure of wooden crates. The structure gradually started tilting, before it eventually toppled. Amid rounds of cheers, people started giving high-fives. Passersby seemed both impressed and perplexed about the situation: Is this a game or a social experiment? What is the significance behind their action and these wooden crates? For the Tokyo-based artist, these collective efforts are his exploration of the balance between “the possibilities and impossibilities of public collaborations.”