Experiencing art with the perspective of “misunderstanding will do!”

I always enjoyed drawing pictures and making crafts since I was small. However, as I grew up, “art becomes something to see in galleries” and “you wouldn’t understand art unless you have specialist knowledge”. This was why I felt art was difficult to approach even though I was interested in it for some time. Then I went to Naoshima during the Setouchi Triennale and enjoyed immensely. It changed my view completely to “art is something you can feel and enjoy in place.”

I was always looking for questions that had answers like what you learn at school. However, art doesn’t have a right or wrong. I like traveling because it is there is no need to conform or to find the same answer or truth as others. I became able to genuinely enjoy art since I felt that “you can misunderstand as much as you like according to your own feeling.”

I was surprised to know that there was such a large-scale art festival happening in the midst of mountains in Niigata. If the attractiveness the Setouchi is “openness of the wide ocean”, I found Echigo-Tsumari holds an atmosphere of the “homeland of heart”. As you enter into the mountains, the atmosphere of the place which is embraced by the nature feels warm. It is a place where you would like to visit again and again.

What makes me feel “I’ve returned to the festival again!” most is the artwork “Boys with red lion cloths returned”. It is so bizarre that something like jizo appear all of sudden and isn’t it sweet that people put on jumpers on the artwork in winter?

What I fell in love with during ETAT2019 (the seventh iteration of the festival) was “The Kamigo Band – Songs for the Seasons” by Nicolas Darrot, which was presented in a classroom in a closed junior high school building. Figurines with the appearance of animals and yokai (monsters) play in a music band. The design of the stage and details of movements represent such an exquisite workmanship and I could watch them play music for long time. I would love to have it at home.

Some of the artworks were temporary over the course of the festival and I loved “ATLAS-LAMENTI” by Emma Malig, which was displayed in a shrine building. A sphere like a globe was spinning around making something like a shadow picture. It was so beautiful. The fact that you stepped into a worship hall where you wouldn’t normally haveaccess to made you feel excited as you were doing something that was not ordinarily allowed.

What she recommends is Sansho House, a renovation of an old wooden school building. If you go and stay with your friends, it feels like you are on a school excursion. You wouldn’t have much opportunity to sleep in bunk-bed when you are adult. Local villagers cook your meal and you can see an artwork by Leandro Erlich in the common room while you can also play in the gymnasium – what more could you expect for a fun time! (reference: Stay with art – spending time in Sansho House)

Artworks are found in nature, in the classrooms of closed schools, in shrines and old minka houses where there is no signs of human inhabitation and in places filled with human hospitality. That is why artwork are able to help create spaces that are indescribable – a space in harmony even they may appear to be discordant. That is something you can’t experience in art galleries. I would say this is where this festival’s attraction exists.