Museum on Echigo-Tsumari (MonET)

Open
Open all year / Closed on Tue & Wed except holidays
Photo by KIOKU Keizo
Photo Kioku Keizo
Photo Kioku Keizo
Photo Nakamura Osamu
Photo Kioku Keizo
Photo Nakamura Osamu

Information and Map

About the artwork

Permanent Works Artists:Asai Yusuke/Leandro Erlich/Ilya&Emilia Kabakov/Carlos Garaicoa/Kuwakubo Ryota/Kurita Koichi/Nicolas Darrot/Marnix de Nijs/Nakatani Michiko/Nawa Kohei/Carsten Nicolai/Massimo Bartolini feat. Lorenzo Bini/[mé]/Moriyama Daido/Gerda Steiner & Jörg Lenzlinger/Nikita Kadan/Tanya Badanina
The museum has a permanent collection of 16 works, including new works from 2024, as well as a museum store.*MonET admission fee is required to use the store. Goods are also available in the online store (except for some items).

Echigo-Tsumari is blessed with the bounties of nature, but the site for this building was the town, and special conditions applied. My aim was a building with attractive spaces and architectural characteristics able to attract visitors in their own right. Further, I believe that the structure must enfold nature, which I chose to represent with a pool. For the surrounding space, I chose a pure geometic shape, the square, more beautiful than any other form. It would function to bring new order to a jumbled and messy townspace. Exposed concrete and lavish use of glass would give a quiet appearance to the building, separating the peaceful interior from the noisy outside. Inside, rooms are nested inside each other, a traditional form in Japanese architecture, found in sacred places such as temples and shrines. The building has been renovated and re-opened as a new museum, the Echigo-Tsumari Satoyama Museum of Contemporary Art, KINARE in July 2012.

【Museum of the one and only site-specific art, built by Hara Hiroshi】
The building was designed by Hara Hiroshi + Hara Hiroshi+ATLIERΦ, who also designed the Sapporo Dome and Kyoto Station Building. It features a centripetal space with a central pond and a corridor surrounding the atrium.

Permanent artworks

The works on display are deeply concerned with the characteristics of Echigo-Tsumari’s climate and culture, or allow the viewer to experience the transformation of space and time of the place where the work is exhibited.

[Artists]
Asai Yusuke/ Leandro Erlich / Ilya & Emilia Kabakov / Carlos Garaicoa / Kuwakubo Ryota / Kurita Koichi / Nicolas Darrot / Marnix de Nijs / Nakatani Michiko / Nawa Kohei/ Carsten Nicolai / Massimo Bartolini feat. Lorenzo Bini / 目[mé]/ Gerda Steiner & Jörg Lenzlinger/Nikita Kadan / Tanya Badanina

Special Exhibitions (recent years)

MonET Museum Shop

This is the largest store in Echigo-Tsumari selling the ETAT goods. Official▽ logo goods, artist goods, terraced rice, originally designed sake and sweets, and many other local specialties are also available. Paintings, sculptures, and other small works by related artists are also on display and for sale. Take home a variety of “art” as a souvenir of your trip. Goods are also available in the online store (except for some items).

*MonET admission fee is required to use the store.

Planning and Exchange Space

“Salon MonET” with tea ceremony and library functions is also available. In the theater, video works, documentary films, and feature films related to Echigo-Tsumari are screened. In the corridor, a community space designed and supervised by Ryohin Keikaku Co. The aim is to create an open creative space where local residents and visitors can interact and inspire each other.

History of the Museum

Completed in 2003, it opened as the “Echigo-Tsumari Exchange Center / KINARE,” a base facility dealing with local products and tourism. The “Echigo-Tsumari Satoyama Museum of Contemporary Art / KINARE” was created during renovations in 2012. In 2021, the museum underwent another major interior renovation and was re-launched as “Museum on Echigo-Tsumari, MonET”.

Information and Map

Artwork no. T025
Production year 2003
Opening hours 10:00-17:00 (last admission 16:30)
Admission [Permanent exhibition] Adult: ¥1000, Children6-15 years old: ¥500
[Special exhibition (including permanent exhibition) ] Adult: ¥1200, Children6-15 years old : ¥600

●Group rate (20 people or more)
[Permanent exhibition] Adults: ¥800, Children6-15 years old : ¥400
[Special exhibition (including permanent exhibition) ] Adult: ¥1000, Children6-15 years old : ¥500
Closed Tue & Wed
*If Tuesday and Wednesday are consecutive holidays, the next business day is closed)
Area Tokamachi
Village MonET
Open dates Open all year / Closed on Tue & Wed except holidays
Venue 6-1 Honcho, Tokamachi-city, Niigata
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