《 5/1 》
work in Mie, JAPAN.
Participatory art
size : 102×212×172(mm).
materials : used receipts from others, wrapping paper, newspaper, yarn, craft boxes.
01/05/2024.
-from Instagram
Between April 23 and April 30 2024, we invited 50 people from all over Japan to send us receipts they happened to have in their wallets—under the premise that they would be used as part of an artwork.
May 1st.
The day we officially registered our marriage.
An ordinary day turned into something special.
In return, we sent something back to each participant—
A gesture in which something once ordinary might now appear, just slightly, different in their eyes.
We imagined which receipt might be the easiest to forget if thrown away—
and chose just one from each envelope, wrapping it with the utmost care.
Alongside it, we included a photo of items we bought at a supermarket in France,
the same supermarket where we got engaged.
In France, May 1st is known as “Lily of the Valley Day. (la fête du Muguet)”
This was not about asking someone to treasure a receipt.
Nor was it about declaring that “everyday life is beautiful.”
Rather, it was about this quiet fact:
That something someone once felt okay letting go of—
returned to them in the form of a gift.
And maybe, just maybe, that might bring a tiny shift
in how we see receipts from now on.
Small, fleeting gestures in the flow of daily life—
nameless things quietly resting there.
What we wish to hold dear, the textures we want to share—
we hope to convey them through our bodies, through acts.
If these gestures can resonate, even across different subjectivities,
then perhaps this is one of the artistic practices we most aspire to pursue.
So, with great care,
we delivered these once-nothing receipts
with a faint trace of meaning.
You’re welcome to throw away the wrapping or the receipt by tomorrow.
But if it lingers in some small corner of your mind,
that alone would be enough.