The ideal society as seen by Gaudi | ETSURO SOTOO | TEDxNihonbashi
1)
This is Barcelona. I went to Barcelona 40 years ago. I would dig stones if I had to do something for this truth. So it was about half a century ago, when I was 15 years old, but like everyone... How should we live? And humanity. I didn't think at the time that this was such a big deal for universities, but what is a human being? Who am I? This is a question that every young person in the world, both in the East and the West, has thought about at one time or another. I wondered and tried to answer these two questions, but I felt the best way to do it was to dig into the Stone.
2)
It's a bit illogical, but it's just intuition. It's the oldest work of humanity, the Stone Age, when people spent their time carving stones, there was a time when it was essential to excavate your will. But now, even though that will be fading, those who dig their will, well, it's like walking through a social blackout, but once you get stuck, I recommend this to anyone who can't let go. When you're holding it, it gives you a nice, comfortable feeling, like you're somehow in tune with the rhythm of the universe. But that's because when carving a stone, you clap your hands if you don't get it right. Blood is going to flow, and of course, you will sweat.
3)
I thought that by continuing to do the bare minimum of a tsunami for a human being, my life path would change, so if I wanted to dig stones, I thought I should go to Europe, where there is a lot of stone culture. I'll tell you this: I don't believe there are many people, including myself, who have experienced Japan and the German Rhine as the top of the world, but these two countries have already become a mass of people. A whole new city was built in Japan. The next day, Germany began numbering the broken stones to mark the year of destruction in the hope of one day restoring them to their original state: the address was rebuilt, and now it was as if the war had never happened. I went to Europe because I thought if I went to Germany, I might break my good teeth, but the identical artificial swords were listening to my body, and I thought I needed to get some food to fight them.
4)
Is this my weakness or my strength? I came to Spain, which is rich in food, and I thought there would be waves and wine in Nishinomiya and there would be a fight against the Germans, but when I went to Spain, I found the Sagrada Familia, which was delicious, wasn't it? So there's Stone. There's a bunch of rubble piled up. I wonder what they're doing. I wonder if they're demolishing something. Whatever they're doing, it doesn't make much noise, but if you look closely, you can see that the stones are rough. Well, the fact that I have a doctor's roughstone means that I'm trying to make something. Even if it's all old, I'll borrow it. The rough Stone doesn't have to be as big as this one; it's OK if it's just a broken piece. I thought it would be worth coming to Europe if I did, so I tried talking to him, but he didn't understand Spanish.
5)
I showed him a photo I had carved out of a photographic stone, but it took over two months to reach that point. I don't even know who is in charge. I can't tell anyone in charge, and it's completely unknown. It's a place many people go to, but at that time, it was a red-light world with no management. When they finally found the person in charge and showed it to me, they told me they would give me a test, so I was given a group of fruits and a branch with leaves on it. I'm a sculptor; all I did was dig up this rock, so why not make a shape out of it? If this was a restaurant, how would I cook it? I turned it into a sculpture, and fortunately, it was recognised, and I started working with it, and the work I did then is still in use ten years later, so I started working here, and it's been 40 years, so I'm the only example of a castle.
6)
This is the one in the castle. This is UNESCO. Lolly is the person who owns seven or eight UNESCO World Heritage Sites. The main hall is being completed like this. Excuse me, can you see me? A man is standing there with make-up on his fingers and a white tassel on his head. This is a 60-metre stretch with no handrails, ladders or anything. Well, the Olympics are coming. These are the pots of the horizontal bar athletes. Today I was running, hanging, climbing and the moment I stood up I had to hold a statue of Ueno, if I didn't I'd die. I climbed 60 metres, and while planning and doing various things, I was asked to help. I'm squatting on the horizontal bar.
7)
That's what I did. I was undocumented for 35 years. I built a school called Veranda Sculpture, which is made of stone and is 5 and 20 metres high. It was my first job, and I often entrusted it to them. I didn't even understand the language. For the first time, it was important for foreigners to connect Gaudi's part with the new part; they just flew in and saw a shadow; they said it was dangerous, but I decided to entrust them with a big job and accomplished it. There was one problem. When I worked from the bottom up, I had to draw the diagram myself, but I ended up with this triangular piece that had to go through 1 centimetre. Gary did this through a 1-centimetre-thick zodiac stone. One question is, did he try to do that? The other question is, did he try to put the sculpture down?
8)
When I get a sculpture, I think about how to compose it and what Gaudi would do if he had done it, but that's another emblem of design, and I've always wondered how he solved these two problems. But, like Archimedes, I usually get into trouble in the bath, but I suddenly realised that the problem with this structure is that it is weak and that there is only one place to put a sculpture. In other words, if you put a sticker in a place you think is weak, it will become strong. I first met Gary.
Gaudí there's a man named Gaudí who solved two problems with one answer, or maybe three. I didn't try to solve the problem with one answer. In other words, it's a question of structure. Structure doesn't exist because of sculpture but because of the sculpture.
9)
Many problems exist, and I wonder if we separate them too much. Everyone is serious. Let's open this problem in Let's Solve the Problem 2. When we open it, we'll see what subject it is in. There are some things we didn't know before. A problem arises, and it gets more complex when Japanese people try to solve it again complicated. How should I solve it? Every day, more and more issues arise. That's why everyone looks like that. That's the way to solve the problem. That's the first thing I came across. We are looking for a single answer that can solve many problems. Wait a minute. You may think this is not easy, but it's 3000 years old. It's been 18 years since we started living, but how are people trying to live?
10)
People all over the world are worried about whether humanity will survive the next 1000 years or not. The clues are there: our eyes can't see far, and we don't smell like lions or shows. I can't run fast. What should I do with this shadowy body? The important thing is to look at it holistically. I'll tell you something else later. To everyone I've talked to here, I don't want to put it into words. To be helpful to others To make people happy Your Tokyo is there, but it's because of love That's where I met my first fruit and made lots of fruit like this 3m. I made it in a 15-ton Venetian glass. Why is there fruit? I said before that you should eat tickled fruit, but I don't think you should go that far.
11)
The big window is 45 metres long, and it's all fruit. They may all come next year, but each intends a single fruit and leaf. This one-tonne of Stone will be made of granite in five days. Will I get a job if I don't lay it in 5 days? Two hundred pieces, 200 types. Thanks to you, it's a great body. This is the first test. I've been thinking about doing this for ten years. But nobody knows what it means. One of Gaudi's disciples was still alive, so no one knows. But you can't carve it if you don't know the meaning. Then I thought, Gaudi must be a fruit lover, but this is even better. Deep meaning: The Church is a Church that purifies and fills the souls of men through the words they speak at Mass and makes them grow.
12)
Even in the 4th edition, the word "Say- leaf" is used. What I'm talking about now is an invisible leaf. If this leaf isn't last year's leaf or a leaf or words I heard from someone but what I've picked up, I'm putting energy into it from within. If I were to pass it on to you, maybe you would absorb that energy, and your souls, whether rich or fresh blue souls that have just been born, could come to fruition.
13)
I was also asked to make various shopkeepers. I was also allowed to make a gate. If I had done it without a clover, it would have taken 40 years, so it only took 15 minutes. I also made this. Why did Gaudi want to make this? It's a 100-metre-long grand piano, which no one in the history of humanity has ever thought of, and when you hit it with a pipe, the sound flows horizontally. Two thousand choir members sit in this cathedral, and a 100-metre-long organ is half cold-resistant. It is a musical instrument. In other words, it is a travelling instrument that brings joy to people. When you see the soul, you will see the fruit. We are making tools to make this happen, but why are the pillars tilted?
14)
It's just another church with all these strange structures. Why would they put up such a dangerous pillar? Is it to give people a sense of tension? No, Lovely was trying to say something like this in the Word of God that people can imagine. "I'm not doing it; I'm just discovering it." And the name of these three books is Nature. WhaNaturecan do? As I said, how do we survive in this finite body that we hold up? The way to find the answer is to make an open-ended observation of Nature. If Nature is the president of a company and you are looking for young, creative people, give up. Man cannot do innovative things. Observe what man can do. And It's discovery; to observe and discover it, love is what I mentioned earlier.
15)
I want to make people happy, so I think this will be useful for this person; there is love in that. And why are there such tilted columns? This is an experiment in that sense, but structures are things that resist gravity. Architects have been doing this for thousands and thousands of years, even when they create spaces like this with reinforced concrete, that is gravity, and even now they are fighting it, they are fighting it 24 hours a day, and they are fighting it 24 hours a day. Will I be able to win? What I want to say here is, what is the absolute rationality after Gaudi? I was intentionally suspended, against gravity, in this action squadron in the main hall of the Sagrada Familia. If you shake it, it will sway. But there is only one answer, and Nature does Nature, so why can't we use the answer that does not betray us?
16)
By turning this upside down, all the pillars of the main hall were erected, so none of the pillars are vertical; they are slightly tilted because they are not working against gravity—curves in opacity, etc. If you pile up stones to see if they will go against the turbidity, the force of gravity will help you. The power of lust, the power of fierce flames, are working 24 hours a day to support you. You pay no money, and you pay no taxes. There is no VAT, which is a blessing. Gaudi's wisdom is that we have turned the hidden power that was our greatest enemy yesterday into our greatest ally. That's all we can do as long as we think of it as an enemy. Someday, the wisdom of making an ally is hidden as a potential within man.
17)
Gaudi proves that functional calculations can't solve a problematic column like this. However, skilled artisans who don't even know mathematics twist numbers, plaster moulds, and the axis... I never get tired of repeating this and seeing such complicated deaths come out, so since there's no story, I'll go on with this for a while. That's right. Nature has all the answers. That's why this book is so beautiful. It's lovely because it's about true rationality. It's not something that's trying to be weird. So buildings need windows. There aren't any windows here, but what are windows? Is it necessary? We don't need light here. It's for light. If it's for rain, then a wall is fine. Well, if we build windows for light, then it's okay.
18)
The light knows the answer. The design of the action is the gravity that answers. The window should be the seat of light. The light is concentrated in one point, rising in the east and rising in the west, concentrated in one point like a boul. You can create a shape so that when you make a window, it becomes structurally stronger than expected: the window is made into a frame structure by drilling holes, but if you use this method, the structure will not become weak. On the Elastic Hall's roof, there are many light vents like this. Now, let's look at the chimney. The other one is a set. Umbrella mirror. It's a group house. A group house. Why are the circles and two used to raise the chimney like this? Should it be shaped like a speed-reading soft ice cream? What is the purpose of a chimney? Who should we ask to design the chimney? Who is it?
19)
Air, wind. The wind blows all day long from the mountains onto the roof of a building in a particular centre. Once we have learnt how to create a shape that traps the wind, we can increase its speed by changing the air pressure inside. This is Gaudi's attempt to suck out the smoke, which is probably how aeroplanes flew before there were aeroplanes, but aeroplanes fly by changing the atmospheric pressure and sucking up the smoke with their wings; it's not like they're being taxed from below to fly. Nature has been given to us. How we use it will be the goal or how we see it. Oh no.Gauri's true rationality.Gaudi's true rationality. I had a childlike feeling in my heart that I wanted to make others happy and make myself happy. The only way to do that was to make others happy. Everyone knew that was the best way to be satisfied.
20)
One day, If you find the answer, it means you've made full use of what you've been given. There's nothing wrong with the word rationality we use now. The word ecology isn't too weak—the Jewish power of Nature. And Gaudi built a school in Sagrada Família with his pocket money. What is important? What kind of education will the children of the future receive? The next generation will change depending on whether they get it or not. It's not too late for you. I want to say here that this school where children get it has been producing it for 135 years without any fatal accidents. It's a miracle. Yes, dear woman, it's all the same. I thought about the reason and decided this was the school for me.
21)
This school had to be built to sell with pocket money. The artisans brought their children to polish the cherry blossoms. At that time, it was not an actual city, so if you did this without children, you would unconsciously have to take your children home. Well, I don't fight, I don't introduce myself, and I can't even let my child see my face. I work hard and sweat while my child studies, but maybe my child can have a good, everyday life. The artisans are getting an education that could help them become like that, which gives me hope. The actual scale for adults is that you all live on a salary. That's my hope, too, but if only we could save each other yearly. I have no hope, but the company can't raise salaries by 10%; what is the real reward? I have hope.
22)
And then there's the issue of education. Parents will do anything to ensure their children get a good education and life for themselves. The company built a school in Unmasu, and the real reward was the low wages they wanted to eat and the cooperation with the coopers; that's what supported this school; the quiet children probably wanted to play in the mud but were left alone here. Now that we know the relationship between water, soil and Stone, we can wonder what happens to the dust. We now teach geography, physics and science to children who cannot understand them separately. I want to know what this world is all about with you. Isn't that the real education? The miracles that happened 100 years ago.
23)
We have to do this now. Finding a single answer that combines the structures and symbols I mentioned at the beginning is challenging but complicated. Right now, we have to give these children an education that doesn't have a genuine reason for it. The children play here, but they have wealth, curved lines, graphs, science, mathematics, and music. We're talking about geometry and mathematics, and we're also promoting agricultural employment. We have the exact origin. It was from music that Pythagoras discovered math. It's the easiest thing for children to understand. This school can take Japan forward even in one book. Gaudi is a cheap material.
24)
I made a thin wall vertically. It's like a god. It doesn't make your paper stand on end. It's not rational to say that a real ice ghost can't be used because it doesn't end a particular sentence. It's not what it's supposed to be. Why don't you find a way to do it? It's not rational. How do I make my paper stand upright? Everyone, please give the last person on the pitch a little energy and do it in the morning. Everyone who said they let their paper down knows the answer. Right, it's a folding screen. So I used a cheap rainwater, oil and water brick to make a thin wall, and when I stretched it out it became a heart shape, when I stretched it out it became another heart shape, there was another heart shape in the middle.3 I'm going to school today with two hearts. I'm going to find hope, structure and symbolism in one answer.
25)
Gaudi has been a wingman all his life and has lived with childhood rheumatoid arthritis all his life. This allowed him to ride 7km a day until age 74. Until he became fascinated with Nature, I guess he was stubborn, and the road was for people. It's better to look a little to the right and a little to the left, but that's what Gaudi wanted. He can't sleep straight. While asleep in his bed, he dreamed about how the Sagrada Família would bloom in the future, what people would discover when they looked at them, and how they would create a happy world.
26)
Continue to live happily, for humans will be at peace through dreaming. Let's dream and look for true rationality. Gaudi has left many hints on how to live with these 3,000 years. Let's believe in it, create a different world, gather everyone's enthusiasm, and do what Gaudi did to make people happy. Thank you for today.
The ideal society as seen by Gaudi | ETSURO SOTOO | TEDxNihonbashi
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHf0I0m6lqY
Mr. Sotoo went to Europe alone in search of a place to carve stones and arrived at the then-unknown Sagrada Familia, where he became involved in its construction as a sculptor. Since then, we have continued to create Sagrada Familia while communicating with Gaudi, who is hidden in the many hints Gaudi left behind about what he was thinking and trying to express. What exactly was Gaudi looking for?
ETSURO SOTOO Head of Art Studio, Sagrada Familia Basilica Born in 1953 (Showa 28). He is the director of the art studio at the Sagrada Familia Basilica. He graduated from Fukuoka University of Education Elementary School, Fukuoka Junior High School, Fukuoka Prefectural Fukuoka High School, and the Department of Sculpture, Faculty of Fine Arts, Kyoto City University of Arts. After working as a part-time middle school and high school teacher, he moved to Barcelona in 1978. He is recognised as a sculptor and involved in the sculpture of Antoni Gaudi's architecture, Sagrada Familia.
In 2005, Antoni Gaudi's "Nativity Gate" and "Cathedral of the Underground", which include works by Etsuro Sotoo, were registered as UNESCO World Heritage Sites. He received the Lladró Art Spirits and the 2002 Fukuoka Prefecture Cultural Award. Received the Foreign Minister's Commendation in 2008. Recipient of the 2011 International Catholic Culture Gold Medal. Winner of the 2012 Michelangelo Prize. Received the European Construction Gold Cross in 2014. Winner of the Gaudi Gresor Prize. Member of the Sant Jordi Catalunya Art Institute. Ambassador of Kesennuma. This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organised by a local community.
