Rolling Landscape 2025_Chiba City is an art project that aims to make visible, share, and preserve the invisible memories that accumulate in the city every day. Although cities are places that are constantly changing, the residents and substances there bear traces of time. This work attempts to reconsider the relationship between cities and individuals by looking at the memories and questions buried under that daily life.

Underlying the work is an interest in the structure by which changing and fixed memories in the city intersect. A multilayered urban landscape is formed by the temporary traces of people who visit and leave Chiba every day for sightseeing or transporting goods, and the memories of long-term residents.

The setting for the work is the area around Chiba Station, a node connecting the Boso Peninsula and the Tokyo area, and a place where different kinds of people come and go. As essential workers and people from diverse backgrounds visit each day, the countless vestiges of their movements and existences accumulate in layers over the cityscape. The project focuses on the fluidity of the city and the individual traces that lie under the surface.

At the core of the project is artist Yohei Chimura’s act of moving through the urban space around Chiba Station while rolling a glass tire. A small camera attached to the tire shaft records the scenery through the glass, and the images reveal a distorted reflection of the cityscape.

The bluish-green glass used in the project is a unique blend of melted raw materials, including sand, dust, and dirt collected daily by JR Chiba Tetsudo Service, whose staff is responsible for cleaning the area around Chiba Station, as well as materials provided by Chiba Shrine, the exhibition venue. By deliberately not using colorless, transparent glass, but mixing these materials to create a new glass, the project also constitutes an attempt to visualize the tiny traces of the city that amass daily in this key transportation hub.

In the exhibition, the glass tire is shown alongside footage of the landscape. The marks of abrasion etched into the glass of the tire seem to mirror the distorted landscape captured in the footage, giving viewers a sense of newly perceiving the city on a different level.

As part of the fieldwork for the project, Chimura has partnered with Chiba City Honmachi Elementary School and Chiba City Sakushindai Elementary School to make another glass tire from the sand that naturally accumulates on the shoes of the students.

During the exhibition, a workshop is held in which participants can try rolling this glass tire around the neighborhood, providing a place to experience new connections with local memories and the environment.

The essence of the project lies not in trying to solve social issues directly, but rather in taking up the questions hidden under everyday life and triggering realizations and dialogue among viewers.

（Photography：SHINICHI ICHIKAWA）

Event Overview

• Dates: September 19 (Fri) – November 24 (Mon, substitute holiday), 2025
• Opening times: 10:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m.
• Closed Wednesdays
• Venue: Chiba Shrine Former Burning Site（1-16-1 Innai, Chuo-ku, Chiba City, Chiba Prefecture 260-0018）
• Free admission
• In cooperation with: Chiba Station Building Co., Ltd., JR Chiba Tetsudo Service Co., Ltd., Chiba Shrine, Chiba City Sakushin Elementary School, Chiba City Honcho Elementary School

Visitor Information (Former Burning Site)

The exhibition venue “Former Burning Site” is located in the northwestern part of Chiba Shrine’s grounds (on the side facing Tsūmachi Park), facing the road.

From Google Maps: Former burning site is located near the torii gate (rear) of Chiba Shrine.

Exterior of Former Burning Site

Other Events

• Area Walking Tour：October 26（Sun）, 2025, 1:00–3:00 p.m.
  Participants will walk from Chiba Shrine to Arts Unagi, taking photographs of the neighborhood from a camera attached to a tire shaft, and then viewing them.
  ※Details about the walking tour will be announced on the Chiba City Arts Triennale 2025 website.
  ※The tire is available for visitors to roll from October 26. Anyone can try walking around Toricho Park with the tire.

Heatstroke Prevention Measures

Please take measures to prevent heatstroke by staying hydrated and wearing a hat, etc., according to the environment. If you feel unwell, please notify a nearby staff member.

Photography and Video Recording

Photography and video recording will be conducted on the day for promotional and record-keeping purposes. Media outlets may also conduct interviews and filming. Photographs and videos taken may be published on the Chiba International Art Festival website, social media, brochures, and other promotional materials, as well as on television, magazines, and other media. We kindly ask for your understanding in advance.