For Mino Soil’s initial exhibition, Vol.01, Archaeology of Mino, held in Tokyo in June 2021, the brand has collaborated with Indian architectural firm Studio Mumbai to produce a space based on the theme of soil and clay quarries. While products born from the soil are a common part of daily life, the quarries and the soil they produce are far less visible. The exhibition space reveals the primitive presence and beauty of soil through raw objects made from various soils from the Mino region. Created by hand, the objects bring out the character of each material. Additionally, photographs of quarries, taken by Yurika Takano, provide a chance to experience the primary scenery of manufacturing in the Mino region. The layers of clay, witnessed at the quarries, are evidence of the tens of millions of years of history residing beneath the ground.
Soil is the history of the earth itself, within which humans are just one element. Archaeology of Mino provides an opportunity to consider this in the context of the earth’s cycle.