「NEW BOOKS」"Model Studies: Kōtō-ku(IMA photobooks) Photographs by Thomas Demand

Thomas Demand is known for his large-scale photographic and video works that recreate scenes of historical and social events using documentary photographs and footage as clues, then re-photographing these models, offering a glimpse into the event sites. "Model Studies," released in 2011, was Demand's first work to photograph models created by others, shifting his focus to "models" as a concept as important as images themselves.

The second installment in this series, "Model Studies (Kōtō-ku)," features photographs of models by the architectural unit SANAA. From 2013, Demand visited SANAA's office in Koto Ward, Tokyo, multiple times, photographing numerous architectural models that gave form to various ideas born there.
SANAA's models are scattered throughout the office as living seeds of ideas, uncertain of when or where they will sprout and grow into a large tree. In an architectural firm with staff of diverse nationalities, they also function as a medium for communication.

While there are many similarities between Demand's models and architects' models, such as their production methods, materials used, abstracted details, and temporary existence, Demand's models are ultimately reduced to images, while architects' models transform into buildings hundreds of times larger. By photographing architectural models as sculptures that materialize an idea, Demand highlights the fleeting beauty of ideas that repeatedly emerge and are discarded through various approaches. This is Demand's latest photobook exploring the rich possibilities of the concept of a model.

Publisher Seigensha

Published 2015

Pages 80

Size 324x277mm

ISBN 978-4865870992