Nobuaki Date

Ukulele-sation: Building Conservation Project

“The Syokuryo Building” (2002), “Classroom #1 of the Economic Law Dept. of Kyoto University” (2003),  “SUMISO” (2005)

“Ukulele-sation: a Building Conservation Project started in April, 2000 by Nobuaki Date in order to conserve a personal memories related to the architecture which are going to be abandoned. In the project, the materials imbued with the life of the house are extracted and remade into a ukulele by the artist. Responding to the social transcendences in an individual level, labour of love offered by the artist transforms ukulele, a musical instrument into a container of memories. The ukulele is always returned to the owner of the house. Since the launch of the project, 62 ukuleles in total have been created.