Art Field Day to welcome

On 7 September, under a blue sky with the sun shining like midsummer, the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial’s first “Echigo-Tsumari Art Field Day” took place.

When I arrived at the NUNAGAWA Campus in the morning, I found handmade banners fluttering along with the national flag, and huge cheering flags for each team by artists associated with the Art  Triennale. The golden entrance gate was lined with streamers and standard field day music such as “Heaven and Hell” and “Kushikos Post” was playing. In the midst of all this, participants from local villages and all over the country arrived by bus one after another, and the anticipation for the exciting field day rose to a fever pitch.

Five hundred people, young and old, men and women, from 24 countries and regions, divided into six red and six white teams, marched in, led by the Echigo-Tsumari Kapukapu Ensemble, formed by saxophone player Oka Makoto. The Echigo-Tsumari Art Field Day  began.

Following an address by Tamesue Dai, Olympian and 400 m hurdles record-holder, as chairperson of the organising committee, the morning’s events proceeded smoothly: preparatory exercises by FC Echigo-Tsumari, an “onigiri korokoro” (rice ball rolling) event, a “coloured water relay” in which small children and elderly people played an active part, a “running race” by self-styled leg-proud　athletes, and a “borrowing competition” with a unique theme. In the garden of a house overlooking the ground, elderly residents sat on chairs to watch the games. It was very much like a “community field day”.

And finally, it’s time for lunch.
The Echigo-Tsumari Art Field Day is also a day for “tasty onigiri”. The local mothers prepared 1,000 onigiri, fried tofu, fried eggs and pickles from early in the morning and served them at the tents, while the Echigo-Tsumari  Kapukapu Ensemble played farm instruments, FC Echigo-Tsumari and Nihon University College of Art volunteers performed dance and Setouchi Triennale volunteers did gymnastics. 50 pairs also held a bread-eating contest.

The afternoon session included a ball toss, a jump rope and a climactic team relay. Led by Nomura Masaiku’s skilful MC, the fields day flew by.

The event ended with a moving finale in which all participants danced and sang along to a rendition of Oka Makoto’s composition Punch Permanent Chilli Chilli. It was a day when people from various backgrounds, transcending nationality, region, generation and genre, came together to play together and share joy and excitement.

In fact, a large field day, like the prototype of the “Echigo-Tsumari Art Field Day”, took place more than 20 years ago. The “Art Picnic” was held in Showa Memorial Park as the opening programme of the Faret Tachikawa. It was held on 21 October 2001, one month after 9/11. Kitagawa Fram has wanted to hold this “Art Picnic” in Echigo-Tsumari one day since that time. This “Echigo-Tsumari Art Field Day” was the realisation of a dream that had been 20 years in the making.

The field day is actually something unique to Japan, a festival in which the whole community participates, competes and enjoys itself, and is not found in other countries. This is why it is so new to foreigners. Group competitions and cheer competitions, music during competitions and between competitions, the colourful cheering flags, and lunch time when the entire spectator area becomes a picnic site – these are all part of the festival experience. It was a perfect event for the NUNAGAWA Campus, where students work hard in subjects other than physical education, music, art, home economics and the five main subjects.

Preparations started around May.
We started calling on people from the toughest people, from as many countries, regions and diverse people as possible to take part.

There are 120 million refugees in the world today, and in Japan there are 14,000 refugee applications every year. But only 2% are recognised. The rest become “parolees” and are unable to work or move across prefectures. Kanai Maki of the Refugee and Migrant Fest Organising Committee, which supports these people, accompanied each of the provisional releasees to the immigration office, applied and obtained permission, and a total of 22 people from 11 countries took part. They repeatedly said that they were having fun and that they had never felt so physically and mentally relaxed in their life as refugees, which is often a painful experience.

Abe Toshiki’s Ridilava, who works on a project to eliminate disparities in experience due to poverty, brought nearly 20 children with roots abroad. In the finale, they danced as if bursting at the centre of the circle. Foreigners working in Echigo-Tsumari and Niigata Prefecture and people attending facilities for the disabled also took part. The field day became a place of “hospitality” and an opportunity for diverse people to connect.

While calls for participation were made, preparations were also made for competitions, tools, flags, banners and goods. During the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale, when there was even a shortage of staff, meetings were held every night from 8 pm, just before the end of the festival. Some staff members even took on the responsibility for the field day. The morning of the field day arrived.

The pledge read out by Mr Kanai, the leader of the white group, and Mr Abe, the leader of the red group, contained our aspirations for the art triennale and for the world.

Oath!
We are on this planet,
8 billion people, each and every one of us different
living at the same time on this planet,
and make the most of our individuality,
Participate in sports, arts and play,
to eat delicious rice balls, and to understand each other,
We pledge to make it a fun field day.