Louise Mutrel: Only You Can Complete Me

The dekotora phenomenon, Japan’s decorated trucks, emerges in the 1970s, influenced by post-war American car customisation culture. Inspired by the aesthetics of US trucks, Japanese drivers transform utilitarian vehicles into highly crafted, mobile avatars. These trucks, often used for construction or transport, become hybrid art forms blending traditional motifs like ukiyo-e prints with popular culture references, such as the robotic armour of the 1980s Gundam series.

By the 1990s, dekotora are deemed too flashy and are banned from city centres and night driving with full lights. The scene shifts to Japan’s outskirts—industrial areas, service stations, and car parks—where passionate owners gather to share their creations.

On Sundays, large dekotora gatherings become ritualised events for Art Truck Clubs. Trucks parade in formation, adorned with sacred figures like Niō, Ebisu, or Hannya—icons that serve as both talismans and expressions of belief. Each truck becomes a story, and each driver a storyteller, re-enchanting their daily working life.

In “Only You Can Complete Me”, Louise Mutrel immerses herself in this subculture, treating the gatherings as sites of collective faith and aesthetic experimentation. Her work shifts between documentation and visual narrative, capturing the chromed intensity of these ephemeral spectacles. With a saturated eye—low to the ground or lost in the steel sky—Mutrel searches for signs, symbols, and flashes of magic amid the noise.