en
- de
- en
This fragment is part of the "CulturalxCollabs - Weaving the Future" carpet.
Through the fragment we trace the journey of the fragment owners and their collabs as they explore, experiment and creatively advance socially relevant themes. Here is the fragment as we are sending it on this three and a half-year journey.
Follow this story to observe the transformations the fragment undergoes over the course of these years...
...AND ON WE GO...
...with Kuwasawa Design School (Kazushige Suzuki, Asuka Kawabata, Non Sugisawa, Aki Toyoshima and KDS Students)
The Dragon Carpet: Weaving the Spirit of Shibuya at the Scramble Crossing
Filmed in Shibuya, Tokyo, Japan | March–April 2025
by Kuwasawa Design School (Kazushige Suzuki, Asuka Kawabata, Non Sugisawa, Aki Toyoshima and KDS Students)
This video was recorded using a 360-degree camera. To explore the scene from every angle, please move your device or adjust the viewing perspective. For the best experience, we recommend watching in 4K resolution.
Weaving the Spirit of Shibuya at the Scramble Crossing
Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo is one of the most famous pedestrian intersections in the world, renowned for its chaotic yet remarkably synchronized scramble. At peak times, up to 3,000 people cross in all directions at once—somehow without colliding.
Tokyo is a city in constant evolution, but Shibuya is currently undergoing a once-in-a-century large-scale redevelopment, which includes the transformation of Shibuya Crossing itself. By 2027, the entire area will be redesigned to improve accessibility, coinciding with the reopening of the Pergamon Museum. As part of this redevelopment, the Hachiko Family ceramic wall art, which had stood by Shibuya Station and the crossing for 35 years, was permanently removed in January 2025. For those of us born in Tokyo and deeply familiar with Shibuya Station and the crossing, the area has undergone a gradual yet complete transformation over the past decade. The Shibuya of our childhood has all but disappeared.
Change is the defining characteristic of this restless metropolis
With Fragment #34, we capture the raw, dynamic essence of Shibuya Crossing as it exists in 2025—an ephemeral moment in the city’s ever-changing landscape. By the time the museum reopens in 2027, this iconic scene will no longer exist in its current form. For better or worse, change is the defining characteristic of this restless metropolis.
the Caucasus was a crucial point along the Silk Road, influencing Japanese design at its final destination.
Next to Kuwasawa Design School, the design institute where we teach in Shibuya, stands Kitaya Inari Shrine—a historic place of worship dating back to the 18th century. True to the essence of Shibuya, the shrine now features a modern concrete and metal structure while enshrining a dragon deity since 1772. There are various theories, but the Caucasus was a crucial point along the Silk Road, and some suggest that dragon motifs traveled along this route, influencing Japanese design at its final destination. Tokyo, a city where history and modernity seamlessly intertwine, continues to weave its future amid constant change—juxtaposing the 17th-century woven Caucasian dragon carpet, which has been preserved and exhibited for centuries.
Shibuya Crossing in Tokyo is one of the most famous pedestrian intersections in the world, renowned for its chaotic yet remarkably synchronized scramble. At peak times, up to 3,000 people cross in all directions at once—somehow without colliding.
The journey begins...
...with Burkhart von Scheven from Bauhaus-Universität Weimar
Every Nations Yarns
For this video collage the fragment #34 of the 17th-century Caucasian dragon carpet has been fractionalized even further. 203 macroscopic photographs illustrate how knot by knot literally every color is represented within even this little section of the antique artwork and conserved over the centuries including all brutalities coming with them. These colors could always have been standing for the colors of the nations of this world and their peoples. Looking at it this way the Caucasian carpet always has been an ambassador for transregional participation and for bringing and holding mankind together no matter which heritage, nation or sex anyone belongs to. The white repair sections make the color code even more universal.
The letters in the video collage – once put together – quote the first three sentences of the preamble of the charter of the united nations. In which almost everything we should care for is said already.
Front and Back
About the Project
The Museum for Islamic Art's project, #CulturalxCollabs - Weaving the future, celebrates the transformative power of cultural exchange and the shared threads that unite us all. All the things we love, have loved and will ever love come from cultural exchange, migration and diversity, or as we like to call it #CulturalxCollabs.
100 carpet fragments, cut from a replica of the iconic dragon carpet, will travel the world (delivered by DHL). The fragments will ignite #CulturalxCollabs with co-creators, inspiring human ingenuity, fostering community and ultimately demonstrating how cultural exchange enriches all our lives.
Follow #CulturalxCollabs on Instagram as the project unfolds...
...or learn more here
Weaving the Future
Join us on a journey with 100 carpet fragments as they travel around the world for three and a half years, finding temporary homes while bridging cultural boundaries, fostering worldwide community united by the power of human stories.
Fragment Journeys
100 carpet fragments part of the "CulturalxCollabs - Weaving the Future" project. Follow their journeys through the ever changing owners' over three and a half years.
Where is the Dragon?
The star of the "CulturalxCollabs - Weaving the Future" project is a so-called Caucasian dragon carpet from the 17th century. A dragon carpet - all well and good - but: where is the dragon?
