Kazuo Shinohara (1925–2006) was a Japanese architect. In the late 1940s he built Japanese traditional wooden houses in a shopping center, later he built machine-structures such as The Tokyo Institute of Technology’s Centennial Hall in Tokyo (1987), the Ukiyo-e Museum in Matsumoto (1982) and the K2 Building in Osaka (1992) as well as more than thirty private residences. He wrote about his work in a book entitled Street with Human Shadows published by the Center for Contemporary Art, Kitakyushu: ‘My first encounters with the concept of uncertainty came when I discovered, in the crevice space construction I called a passage, the expectation that a human figure would suddenly appear, and when I saw, within a hollow concrete space covered by a steeply sloping roof, uncertainty appearing in the midst of strong certainty.’ Like shadows, his buildings disappear into the chaos and pollution of the modern city and the prosaic barrenness of the countryside. His House under High Voltage Lines, for example, curves to mirror the high voltage cables that pass overhead. In his book Street with Human Shadows Shinohara presents photographs he took of places around the world which correspond to disparate memories and thoughts, feelings and people structured by architecture. These photographs have never been shown in a museum or gallery before.

Philippe Parreno

Exhibition produced with the support of the Center for Contemporary Art, Kitakyushu.

Prints by Janvier, Paris.

Framing by Jean-Pierre Gapihan, Paris.