"I,Tokyo / Sabine" Jacob Aue Sobol. Magnum AG

Sobol ha realizado trabajos en Copenhague, Guatemala, Bangkok, Tokio y Groenlandia. En esta exposición se presenta trabajos de dos de sus libros publicados I,Tokyo y Sabine.

I, Tokyo

I came to Tokyo for the first time in the spring of 2006. My girlfriend Sara had got a job there, and so I decided to move with her to explore the city in which she had grown up. It was a society I had never experienced before, one which I had little knowledge of and to which I had no real sense of relationship.

Initially I felt invisible. Each day I would walk the streets without anyone making eye-contact with me. Everyone seemed to be heading somewhere – it was as if they had no need of communication. Most mornings I would take the Chuo-line from Nakano to Shinjuku, and even though the train would be packed with salary-men and school girls in uniform, I rarely heard a word being spoken.

Though Tokyo and its people seemed unreachable, I felt drawn to the tight and confined reality of the metropolis. My feeling of isolation and loneliness was overwhelming – it was something I had to find a way to change. And so I began taking my pocket camera out with me on the streets and in the parks. Rather than focusing on the impressively tall buildings and the eternal swarm of people, I began searching for the narrow paths and the individual human presence in a city that felt both attractive and repulsive at the same time. I wanted to meet the people, to get involved in the city, to make Tokyo mine.

The pictures in this exhibition are a recording of what I saw and the people I met during the ensuing 18 months.

In my attempt to try to understand Tokyo and its people, I found myself returning to the same streets and parks again and again. There were certain areas in Shinjuku and Yoyogi-park that always captured my interest, and inevitably they became the places that I felt closest to. I think that it was meeting the people there, on a one to one basis, that helped to give me a better impression of what it means to be a part of Tokyo today.

Some of those I photographed became my friends, others I shared only a short moment with. The pictures are something that grew from these meetings – pictures I took out of curiosity, and to help me remember how I felt that day, my experience of the city. When I photographed I tried to work by instinct as much as possible so as to connect and involve myself with the places I visited and the people I met. Taking snapshots supports the feeling of something unpredictable and playful. I believe it is when pictures are unconsidered and irrational that they come to life; that they evolve from showing to being.

I, TOKIO / SABINE

Artist.- Jacob Aue Sobol
Venue.- Rita Castellote Gallery. C/ San Lucas 9. 28004 Madrid
Directors.- Rita Castellote y Diego Alonso.
T.- +34 91 308 23 25