21_21 DESIGN SIGHT

For me, being an athlete meant performing actions in their ultimate form. While some actions are unprompted, athletes also take actions to respond to their environment, such as adjusting to the actions of their competitors, and accommodating factors like the wind and the surface of the ground.
The actions of athletes are extensions of actions that we take unconsciously in our everyday lives: a foot extended to take a step, a hand grasping a cup, eyes gazing absently at a browser. By taking such actions to their ultimate, mastered form, the senses become heightened, and we come to know a part of ourselves that we did not know existed. The world of athletes is not wholly different from the world of non-athletes, but it is one where one notices things in detail that is a little bit finer.
Everyone possesses athleticism, but realizing it takes time and effort. Through this exhibition, we hope to offer a glimpse of what that is like.

Dai Tamesue

When we think of athletes, we tend to focus on their well-honed, almost superhuman physical strength. Yet that is only one aspect of what makes an athlete.
Athletes are sensitive to and can perceive changes that occur in their environment from moment to moment: the ground, air, water, the way a ball or their opponents move, etc. At the same time, they know their own bodies well, are able to control them, and respond instantaneously to those changes. To perform at their best in the extreme conditions of decisive moments, athletes extend their own potential - and sometimes even human potential - to its ultimate limits. We want visitors to the exhibition to experience the sensory aspect of athleticism, namely how athletes feel and understand their own bodies and the environment around them, and make them adapt to one another.
Taking another look at the relationship between the body and the environment and the ways in which they interacted with each other will surely provide insight into the nature of the actions that we collectively call "design."

Hisato Ogata

There are some realms of human experience that one first sees through knowing something. There are others that are only seen by developing the ability to do something. Whenever we study something or learn a skill, little by little we become able to see these new realms of experience with greater precision or from a different perspective than before.
If this is the case, what are the realms of experience that only athletes, who have mastered the skill of controlling their own bodies and minds, can see? We non-athletes have minds and bodies as well, so how are those realms different from the ones we perceive?
In this exhibition, we hope that, through the works on exhibit, visitors gain a sense for the various elements that make an athlete, including physical and mental control. By gaining rare insight into how things are experienced by an athlete, we hope that visitors can discover something they didn't previously know about their own bodies and minds.

Syunichi Suge