Metabolism # Invisible Cities # Part 1.
About
Metabolism "The starting point was the discovery of a photomontage by Arata Isozaki entitled "Re-ruined Hiroshima". This image is an enigma: in this devastated landscape, two large architectural forms stand out: these structures, made (one assumes) of debris salvaged from the surrounding area, overlook a city that has been laid to rest. The Metabolists (a group of Japanese urban planners and architects with a shared vision of the city of the future) set out to rebuild this country, to give it a new identity. It was a kind of forward-looking impetus, towards a future development of urban space that would respond to the flow of people to urban centers. Nevertheless, they were part of a "traditional" ideological continuity, referring to the iconic image of the Ise temple. Metabolism was the last modernist utopia of the 20th century, a discovery that fascinated me and inspired me to make this film. Some of their unrealized projects are introduced in this film through digital techniques, in the Tokyo of 2015. Historical milestones and ghostly presences inscribed in the urban strata of the Japanese megalopolis.