Happy New Year.
It's been a while since the last diary and my fingers are numb from cold.  Although I'd like to write more, I can't.  

This winter a pair of grizzly art men visited Kamiyama to realise two projects and I helped out a little.  Their first project was part of the LED festival in Tokushima city, their second project was building a torii not far from my house.  

The torii had originally been created in Kobe for the art biennial a while back.  It was disassembled and brought to Kamiyama for storage until it was time for its resurrection this winter.  The artist, Benoit Maubrey, and his technician Gerrit worked hard to bring it back to life.    
As you can see, the torii is a fairly traditional myoujin shape although this one is completely covered in lots of loudspeakers.  They are wired together and connected to a Blutooth transmitter so it's possible to send sounds and music to the loudspeakers.  Of course, there's also a mic jack and a slot for an 8-track cassette if you feel like singing karaoke…  

The loudspeakers are not in audiophile condition.  They're well used and they sound like it too.  Benoit says that pristine sound was never the aim.  I can believe it.  Like Benoit himself (!), the loudspeakers in various stages of decay suggest a past hedonism.  The structure is perhaps a consecration of past excess.  A gateway from the profane to the sacred, or vice versa.