This year, for the 11th time, mt opened its doors to the public. More than 10,000 people from near and far travelled to Kurashiki in Japan, to visit the Kamoi Kakoshi Factory, the birthplace of mt masking tape.
The elements we loved from last year’s exhibition were there again: pimped-up cars, scooters and buses welcomed visitors with fun geometric patterns.
mt lovers from around the world had the chance to learn about the history of the brand, discover creative and practical ways to use mt and spend some time at the Ennichi & Outlet, a wonderful shop inside the factory.
The imaginative approach mt takes to produce its tapes, was also reflected in the theatre of the tour. With Ennichi: Gacha Gacha machines, an mt lottery and catching tape challenge, mt enthusiasts had the opportunity to play games during the tour.
Among these fun activities, fans caught a first glimpse of the “mt next 100 project”, a smart way of reducing waste. In 2023, Kamoi will celebrate its 100th anniversary and for the next 100 years, the brand will carefully consider waste materials and innovative ways of recycling. Including initiatives such as the “heta box”. This box will be available to buy and feature offcuts of tapes, which although irregular in shape, can still be used for creative projects.
Further highlights from the mt factory tour included colourful exhibitions:
A sculpture of an elephant made from offcut “heta” tapes welcomed visitors and allowed the brand to shine a spotlight on how the “heta” scraps can be used to create masterpieces.
The Yogodawa Technique, created by Hideaki SHIBATA and used for this amazing tape sculpture, uses garbage and floating objects that have drifted ashore the riverbank to create art.
Based on this concept, theYodo-Tech has been heavily used in community projects, communicating through art a new perspective for locals and raising awareness of environmental issues.
There’s more, artworks from several tape artists were displayed for the 4th annual art contest. Impressive collages, hyper-realistic scenarios, patterns, and portraits were created using mt masking tape and several winners were honoured in the “mt Design contest”.
This was the MT factory tour vol 11. We look forward to the next one.
