碁. go
The simplest meaning of the word ‘go’ is to move from one place to another. However, ‘go’ is also a name of an old board game for two players. The purpose of Go is to surround as much territory as possible and capture the opponent’s stones. I took this encircling strategy not to control, but to explore, observe, experience and be challenged by the city.
I remember my first day in Tokyo and my Japanese friend saying: ‘The subway is kind of complicated but don’t worry even we are still getting lost and staring confused at the route map’. How could I get to know this fascinating metropolis without understanding and taming the mysterious bloodstream running through its veins?
Between August 2011 and January 2012, I rode all 13 lines and visited more than a half of 274 stations of Tokyo subway. While traveling through the board I saw the inner life of the city. With Tokyo having extremely high population density, personal space is scarce, and with little space in front of you many Japanese retreat to the only space they can; inside their heads.
So close, yet so far.
I was born in Poland, on a cold December day of the year 1985. The second child of my parents always looking for something. Mainly, as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle wrote, how to: “escape from the commonplaces of existence”. That is why I got to Japan.
I’m an observer. I love men, their faces. Those visible expressions of individual history always make me wonder what peoples’ lives are like. What they’re dreaming about. What gnaws at their hearts.
Monika Jurczyk
