" The city is dreaming. Those people do not know that dream.

They do not notice it. Even if they did, it's not something they want to cherish, but to forget.
Forgetting quickly - that what helps them to keep on track in their everyday lives.”

Arata Isozaki “Arata Isozaki's Thinking Power" Okokusya, 2005

Fifty years ago, people had their last "dream". When spacecraft Apollo 11, launched by the United States had landed first humans on the moon dreams were forgotten, and only zealous hoarding left. Even passionate and radical social movements gradually declined since basic demands of the proletarian revolution were met, and former rebels were charmed by capitalistic spell. With the rapid development of science and technology, all people's desires seem feasible today. Everything is possible and nothing left to dream about.

On the other hand, the modern urban space has undergone a transformation led by great hopes and aspirations. Tokyo, which was set to host Olympic Games for the second time, is changing dramatically towards the greater comfort of its citizens and travelers. However, people are captured by that comfort, by other urban pleasures, pretending to be unaware of the flaws they carry. They didn’t even notice when everything turned upside down. Little by little those things which supposed to be a privilege became our responsibility. Big Data, for instance. Today it seems like it is not that information is produced for our convenience, but we were born to produce personal data. City dwellers, who doesn’t dream anymore, look incorporated into a cityscape, like little puppets play their roles on the urban stage, in a city which is dreaming. It is not city for us, but we for the city.

Walter Benjamin, a German Jewish philosopher, in his essays were describing “collective dreams” (Traumkollektiv) as those common biases, which people from particular society unconsciously shared. He also was speaking about common features of the new capitalistic reality, pointing out the nature of architectural arcades, as a place where the realm of collective dreams is taken away from people's consciousness, at the same time the place which makes people break through the accustomed aura. In the shadow of vaults, in an interior set, we can reflect on something that is happening outside. There it is possible to see things clearly and to be awakened from the collective dreams and that is significant for our society.

People who live in a city are the citizen of “A City Dreaming”. The exhibition space presented as the most privatized indoor space, bedroom, a place to be left dreaming, to be awaken and to feel the invisible nature of Tokyo. There are two artists participating in the exhibition Rika Nakashima and Mizutani Tamami, showing the installation called "Dream Collection”.

Are you ready to wake up from a dream?

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