Installation using video, photography & sound synthesis
'You say free but I don't know. That's a question I always ask myself: am I really free in the true sense of the word - Daido Moriyama
During the pandemic, Dirk Bouwen initiated Tokyo on My Mind, a photographic project shared through social media. Inspired by Japanese street photography, he became fascinated by its ability to reveal beauty within disorder and meaning within the seemingly insignificant. Imperfection, absence and ambiguity emerged as essential elements, offering an alternative to idealised representations of everyday life.
The project reflects on the individual's place within contemporary society — on vulnerability, resilience and the subtle tensions that shape our daily existence. Rather than seeking decisive moments or visual perfection, he embraced uncertainty and incompleteness, recognising them as intrinsic aspects of the human condition.
Over time, Tokyo on My Mind evolved beyond photography into an immersive video installation. Combining moving images and sound, the work invites viewers into the atmosphere of a fictional metropolis: at once familiar and disorienting, intimate and anonymous. The city becomes a metaphor for a fluid society in constant transformation, where the search for freedom often unfolds amidst confusion and contradiction.
Ultimately, the work suggests that survival may depend less on our ability to impose order than on our willingness to coexist with uncertainty. To live is to navigate chaos, to acknowledge imperfection and, perhaps, to discover unexpected forms of beauty within both.
