seven porsches’ journey across europe turns into film, photography and installation artwork

Seven classic Porsches turn fictional race into a real journey

What began as a fictional race through 1980s Tokyo has developed into a project comprising film, photography, artefacts, and a physical installation. For Contact Layer of Shinjuku, Polish designer and artist Paweł Kalinowski brought seven classic Porsches, twelve participants, and a 4,000-kilometer journey per car into a new body of work.

Contact Layer of Shinjuku is the latest chapter in Kalinowski’s ongoing exploration of cars, memory, fiction, and lived experience. The project began with Shinjuku, a fictional universe inspired by 1980s Tokyo and an imagined race from Shinjuku to Mount Fuji. In 2026, Kalinowski returned a 1968 Porsche 911 to Japan, developing the car around memories of the fictional event and hand-painting it in Tokyo. The Porsche subsequently became one of the hero cars at Luftgekühlt Tokyo. The project continued with Ghost Layer of Shinjuku, which treated a decaying Porsche 356 as an archaeological object. The car carried traces, artefacts, and memories associated with a life it had never actually lived. This work examined how physical objects can give form to the perception of a fictional past. Contact Layer of Shinjuku approaches the idea from the opposite direction, using an actual journey as the source material for the work.

In summer 2026, seven classic Porsches built between 1955 and 1992 travelled through Poland, Slovakia, Hungary, and Romania with twelve participants from different generations. Each car covered approximately 4,000 kilometers. The journey was undertaken without support vehicles, tow trucks, or a predetermined script. Friends travelled together, parents joined their children, and some participants met for the first time at the beginning of the trip. The route passed through the vineyards of Tokaj, rural roads in Romania, mountain streams, and the Transfăgărășan. Roadside repairs, mechanical failures, and temperatures reaching 38°C became part of the journey. As the route progressed, the destination and the individual cars became less central to the project, while the interactions and experiences generated along the way became its primary material.

morning at the foot of the mountains, all the cars are ready to continue the journey

A car journey turns into film, photography, and installation

The journey was documented through photography and film, while objects, sounds, encounters, and memories accumulated along the route. These elements now form additional layers of Contact Layer of Shinjuku, which is developing into a seven-part documentary series alongside a physical installation. The installation treats the Porsche as a container for memory, extending its role beyond that of an automotive or sculptural object. Moving images, sound, light, and physical artefacts reconstruct fragments of the journey within an exhibition environment. The recorded experience becomes material for a second work, in which individual elements are rearranged through spatial, visual, and sonic means. The first presentation of Contact Layer of Shinjuku is planned for Luftgekühlt in Atlanta in October 2026. The complete work will subsequently premiere at Reszel Castle in Poland, with a future presentation in Tokyo also planned. Returning the project to Tokyo would complete a trajectory that began with the fictional world of Shinjuku, continued through a real journey across Europe, and eventually returns to the city that established its original setting.

Across its successive chapters, the project led by designer and artist Paweł Kalinowski has expanded from automotive design and hand-painted cars into film, photography, sound, collected objects, and installation. Each iteration introduces a new medium while altering the relationship to the preceding work. The original Shinjuku project constructed memories around a race that never took place; Contact Layer of Shinjuku uses an actual journey as the basis for creating those memories through lived experience, documentation, and material form.

pre-trip briefing – we all met at CarBone’s headquarters in Łódź

driving across a small river – none of the cars were damaged, despite the sharp rocks!

unexpected moments can be wonderful – a flock of sheep encountered on the way to the Transfăgărășan

Paweł’s car had a problem with the spar. A quick diagnosis, a few skilled hands, and the problem was fixed!

one of those moments that perfectly highlight the beauty of this trip – a short rest on the mountain amid Romanian vineyards

the first Shinjuku exhibit – unveiled to the world at Luftgekhult in Japan – event for all air-cooled Porsche enthusiasts

the details on the car were crafted by hand using various techniques

the artifacts inside the car tell, in a subtle way, the story of a car that took part in a race – a race that never actually happened…

key visual for the announcement of the next project in the Shinjuku universe

project info:

name: Contact Layer of Shinjuku
automotive designer: Paweł Kalinowski

designboom has received this project from our DIY submissions feature, where we welcome our readers to submit their own work for publication. See more project submissions from our readers here.

edited by: Christina Vergopoulou | designboom