A series of special exhibitions held at the Echigo-Tsumari Satoyama Museum on Echigo-Tsumari, MonET from 2023. Guest curators will select an artist for each exhibition.
Prologue to the Exhibition Series
The Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale has been working to revitalize local communities through art. In order to make the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale even more community-based, we will explore new possibilities for the region and art, meet the artists who will lead the future, and create new collaborations. The Museum on Echigo-Tsumari (MonET) plans to organize and hold a series of long-term exhibitions starting in 2023.
Kitagawa Fram (General Director of Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale)
Exhibition Series Vol.8 Ohno Ayako ”In Our Basket, with You”
Exhibition Outline
Exhibition period: September 27 (Sat) to November 30 (Sun), 2025 Closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, except holidays
Admission: Adults 1,200 yen / Elementary and junior high school students 600 yen
Guest Curator: Tsukamoto Mari (Chief Curator, Kochi Prefectural Museum of Art)
*Common tickets are valid during the common ticket period.
*The admission fee includes admission to Museum on Echigo-Tsumari, MonET permanent exhibition and special exhibitions.
Ohno Ayako has been consistently engaged in stone sculpture since the beginning of her career.
While stone boasts a long history and high durability, it also requires experience and skill to work with. Ono says, “There are more things I can’t do than things I can.” The motifs Ono has chosen to work with so far have centered on “light” symbols such as plants, insects, and fish. Transforming stone into light and liberating forms is an attempt to break free from binary oppositions such as heavy/light, hard/soft, and masculine/feminine, and to resist the fixed notions associated with the material.
In this exhibition, she will present new works on the theme of family.
The word “basket” in the exhibition title hints at a small space separated from the outside world, namely the artist’s own family life. By imagining specific “you”s such as her husband and children while chiseling, the works have gained a depth and weight that they did not have before, while maintaining their simple forms. In this new development, in addition to the personal feelings evoked by the theme of family life, which encompasses both joy and sorrow, the work reflects the multi-layered psychology of Ono as a woman, wife, and parent living in this society.
We invite you to take this opportunity to see Ono’s current position, which reexamines traditional stone carving techniques with a delicate yet modern touch.
Artist Statement
”In Our Basket, with You”
Yamato shijimi or Hime shijimi butterfly.
Benikamikirimushi.
I have to make a place for them to sleep and give them food.A family suddenly begins one day and before you know it, it takes shape.
The insects I gently put in the cage, myself, and my family
are observing, remembering, and nurturing that relationship.“with You” is being together.
Breathing, silence, or perhaps overly noisy moments.
It might be at the usual dining table, or perhaps beyond the invisible wall next door.Together with the “you” inside me, I cautiously extend my feet into the slimy world from within the cage.
And before I know it, the lid opens wide.July 2025
Ohno Ayako
《Family (mother/me)》2025 Photo: Hayato Wakabayashi
《Green is the Color of Grass the Color of Mantis a》2022 Photo:Kei Okano
Event
Artist Talk
An artist talk will be held on the opening day of the exhibition.
The artist will explain the story behind the creation of the works and his new works based on the theme of family. Listen to the artist, who has been working with stone for many years, talk about his unique expression of lightening heavy and hard stones and the background of motifs born from everyday life, and enjoy viewing the works.
Date: 9/27（Sat）14:00～
Location: Museum on Echigo-Tsumari, MonET Exhibition Roo
Fee: Free （Admission fee required separately）
Workshop: “Let's make a mobile (moving sculpture) with stones”
Your loved ones and places. Heavy and light.
We will create shapes using materials with different weights and textures, such as stones and paper, and explore balance while turning them into works of art.
Date: 11/1（Sat）13:00～
Location: Museum on Echigo-Tsumari, MonET Entrance Hall
Fee: 500 yen (separate admission fee required) *Please pay on-site
Target: Elementary school students and above (children in 3rd grade or younger must be accompanied by a guardian)
※Completed works will be exhibited at MonET during the exhibition period. After the exhibition ends, participants may take their works home upon request.
Artist Profile
Ohno Ayako
Sculptor. Born in Saitama Prefecture in 1983. Graduated from the Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts, Department of Sculpture in 2008. By critically examining and rethinking the ordinary aspects of daily life and scenery that are often taken for granted, she uncovers the “uncertainty” that emerges and discovers new insights. Within the freedom of her imagined imagery, she uses the inherent limitations of stone as a starting point to capture the “uncertainty” that transcends language, shaping it into a tangible form. Recent solo exhibitions include “Green is the Color of Grass, the Color of Mantis” (2022, CADAN Yurakucho by KAYOKOYUKI, Tokyo), group exhibitions include “Tokorozawa Art’s Future” (2023, Seibu Railway Tokorozawa Station, Saitama), “Timeline—Several Methods for Touching Time” (2019, Kyoto University Museum of Natural History and Culture, Kyoto), and “The 7th Daikokuya Contemporary Art Competition” (Grand Prize Winner, 2012, Itabashi Onsen Daikokuya, Tochigi).
Guest Curator Profile
Tsukamoto Mari （Chief Curator, Kochi Prefectural Museum of Art）
Born in Osaka Prefecture in 1989. Completed a master’s degree in Cultural Property Conservation at Tokyo University of the Arts in 2014. Has been in her current position since 2016.
With a background in conservation and restoration, she asks “What should be preserved?” and curates exhibitions that highlight the regional characteristics and unique features of each venue. At the Kochi Prefectural Museum of Art, she launched the solo exhibition series “ARTIST FOCUS” in 2020 to introduce artists with ties to Kochi, and in 2022, she organized a retrospective exhibition of the works of Sawako Goda, an artist from Kochi Prefecture. She is also actively involved in projects outside the museum, organizing numerous independent exhibitions by young and mid-career artists.
Summary
| Date and time |
9/27 (Sat) -11/30 (Sun), 2025 Closed on Tuesdays and Wednesdays, except holidays 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. (last admission at 4:30 p.m.) |
|---|---|
| Venue |
Museum on Echigo-Tsumari, MonET |
| Admission | Adults 1,200 yen / Children 600 *Common tickets are valid during the common ticket period. *The admission fee includes admission to Museum on Echigo-Tsumari, MonET permanent exhibition and special exhibitions. |
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