From Niigata's mountains to the sea: project team at Japan's Setouchi Triennale

After Echigo-Tsumari Art Field in mountainous Niigata, the research team (smaller version this time!) attended the Setouchi Triennale art festival taking place in the archipelago of Seto, another art festival organised by project partner Art Front Gallery. Researchers Menelaos Gkartzios and Fran Rowe as well as artist Lucy May Schofield, visited contrasting geographies across the Seto islands, including the more famous ‘art island’ Naoshima, hosting art and architecture from Japan’s leading figures (e.g. Yayoi Kusama, Tadao Ando) and the more quiet Teshima island, equally rich in art projects and with a more visible primary sector base (fishing and farming), supported by small local tourism and benefiting from the art festival. They witnessed numerous socially engaged and art-led development projects, including Naoshima’s Art House Project dating back to the late 1990s, aiming to renovate and re-use abandoned rural houses as living art projects. During their time at Setouchi Triennale, the researchers met with local government, including Naoshima’s vice-mayor who also gave them a lift while running to catch a boat (!), as well as senior civil servants from the Kagawa Prefecture Government, academics from Takamatsu’s Kagawa University, and NGOs working with local artists - for example from the ‘Archipelago’ organisation supporting art education in local schools and contributing to artists' employment beyond the festival period. Huge thanks to Goto Tsumoto from the Kagawa Local Government and Professor Naoyuki Hara from Kagawa University who facilitated an excellent networking experience, ensuring that Setouchi’s art and rural development practice will form an insightful case study for our research project. 

Last modified: Sun, 02 Jun 2019 20:12:29 BST