[Event] Yoshinari Nishio "Machiba no Machibari" (February)

We will hold a workshop where participants will work on creating unique clothes based on a theme. This program is designed for both adults and children, even those with no sewing experience, to casually participate. We encourage you to join us!

Let's become tailors who create clothes that connect people!

This is a 5-session workshop where you can engage in making clothes like crafts with free ideas. Each session has a different theme of "people of〇〇". You will challenge yourself to create unique clothes, such as making clothes that make sounds, remaking clothes by utilizing their torn shapes, and designing clothes inspired by the bodies of living creatures. Using not only sewing machines and scissors but also rare tools and machines available at the venue, you will learn crafting techniques such as "cutting," "pasting," and "connecting" that resemble temporarily fixing with basting pins. The materials used for the works are clothes collected from within the city. In each session, you will freely use materials of different colors, shapes, sizes, and parts to create your work.

Of course, even if you have no experience in sewing or crafting, you are very welcome! The instructor, Yoshinari Nishio, and our staff who love crafting will support you in making your clothes.

Themes of each session

Session 1: People of Subtraction / People of Patchwork
- Date and Time: Saturday, February 1, 2025, 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Let's try to reduce the weight of clothes by cutting out fabric from clothes and using the holes as a design technique. Also, let's try to make patchwork clothes by joining the cut-out fabrics together.

Session 2: People of Chiba City
- Date and Time: Sunday, February 2, 2025, 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM
Let's all take a walk around the city to discover the "shapes of the city" and express the city by sewing or printing those shapes. Also, let's try to deconstruct the Chiba City emblem and use it as a "shape".

Session 3: People of Sound
- Date and Time: Sunday, February 9, 2025, 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Let's try making clothes that function as musical instruments. Let's all wear them and play music together.

Session 4: People of Scabs
- Date and Time: Saturday, February 15, 2025, 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Let's use cut clothes as a base and regenerate the damaged or missing parts with free imagination.

Session 5: People of Seam Allowances
- Date and Time: Sunday, February 16, 2025, 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Let's create seam allowances on our clothes to welcome others. Imagine yourself as a new creature and consider your own unique seam allowance shape by referring to dinosaur dorsal fins, monkey tails, feathered robes, and wings.

Photo by Yukiko Kikuchi

Photo by Tada (YUKAI)

Photo by Yukiko Kikuchi

Photo by Yukiko Kikuchi

After each workshop, we will have a time for everyone to share their creations with each other, and then actually wear them and take a walk around the city. This will be an opportunity to experience interacting with the city and people in a different way than usual.

Also, all the works created throughout the five sessions will be exhibited in the Nishi-Chiba area at a later date.

Photo by Yukiko Kikuchi

Overview

●VenueNishi-Chiba Workshop (Hagiwara Bldg. 1F, 2-16-3 Midoricho, Inage-ku, Chiba-shi, Chiba)

●Dates and Times
Session 1: Saturday, February 1, 2025, 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Session 2: Sunday, February 2, 2025, 11:00 AM - 4:00 PM (*)
Session 3: Sunday, February 9, 2025, 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Session 4: Saturday, February 15, 2025, 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Session 5: Sunday, February 16, 2025, 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM

※All sessions are currently not accepting new applications as the seats are full.
※A total of 5 sessions / Single session participation is also possible.
※The workshop may be canceled in case of severe weather or suspension of public transportation.

●Eligibility
Elementary school 3rd grade and above

●Capacity
10 people each session

●Participation Fee
Free

●How to Apply
First-come, first-served basis for each session. Single session participation is also welcome. Please apply using the form at the bottom of this page.

●What to Bring
 (*) Please bring your own lunch for Session 2 only. Sewing tools are provided at the venue, but please bring your own if you have any that you are used to.

●Other
The clothes created in the workshop will be exhibited during the pre-period and main period of the Chiba City Arts Triennale 2025. We will inform you separately about the return of your work.

Photo by Kenta Kawagoe

This workshop is a related program of the art project that Yoshinari Nishio will be working on at the Chiba City Arts Triennale 2025.

Those who participate in 4 or more of these workshops will be able to participate in a special workshop called "People of Tailor-Made," and upon completing their garment, will be certified as a "Machiba Tailor." Leading up to the main exhibition period, certified Machiba Tailors will take orders from shops and individuals in the city to tailor clothes such as work uniforms, based on their unique ideas and techniques. These unique clothes will generate new interactions in the city, and the Machiba Tailors will become the "pins" of Chiba, connecting people to each other.

We are planning to hold "Machiba no Machibari" workshops with various themes in 2025 as well.

Examples of themes: People of Camouflage / People of Mistakes / People of Dirt / People of Color / People of Zippers / People of Buttons / People of Pockets / People of Curtains / People of Pets / …

Artist Profile

Photo by Natsumi Kinugasa

Yoshinari Nishio
Born in Nara in 1982. Associate Professor at the Department of Arts Studies, Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts. After serving as a researcher for the Agency for Cultural Affairs' Overseas Study Program for Artists (Nairobi, Republic of Kenya), Nishio has developed projects in Japan and abroad that focus on the relationship between the act of dressing and communication. For "Roppongi Art Night 2014," he directed the theme project and exhibited large-scale works using recycled clothing at three locations: Roppongi Hills, Tokyo Midtown, and The National Art Center, Tokyo. He also manages the fashion brand "NISHINARI YOSHIO."

Venue Information

Nishi-Chiba Workshop
A community workshop that shares tools, space, ideas, and skills for making things. It is equipped with various tools for woodworking, sewing, and electronic work, as well as digital fabrication equipment such as 3D printers and laser cutters. They support people in updating their lives and activities with their own hands through "making," "repairing," and "remaking."https://nishichibakosakushitsu.com/

Cooperation

Mikey Inc.https://mikey-inc.jp/

Facilitator Cooperation

Nishi-Chiba Workshop staff

Project Director: Mei NishiyamaProject Manager: Hideyo RyokenProject Coordinator: Chiharu Nagashima

Application Form

※All sessions are currently not accepting new applications.