WELCOME TO THE ERA OF THE ARTSCAPE
Imagine a gallery with no walls, no spot lights, no crowds, no tickets. Then think its polished concrete floors have been replaced with a landscape of stepped rice fields, lush pine forests and blanketing green plains to the horizon. This ‘gallery’ is so huge it requires transport and nearly a whole week to see all of the artworks and it certainly does not close come rain, hail or shine. Artworks dot the landscape for as far as the eye can see.
Welcome to the era of the ‘Artscape’.
The art gallery has been in society for nearly as long as art itself. It is a space displaying art for others. While visionary artists push boundaries and extend art as the world around them changes, so too is the concept of the art gallery changing. ¬¬
The Echigo-Tsumari Region of Japan is, like most rural regional areas, going through a process of decline. Changes in economic livelihoods have seen farming demand fall and its youth population permanently relocating to larger cities.
Amidst all this negativity, the empty buildings of the region made a lasting impression on art entrepreneur, Fram Kitagawa from the Tokyo Art Front Gallery. He noticed an increasing lack of connection between art, place and people and that artworks were losing their identity in large cities. In a desperate attempt to restore these, Kitagawa and his gallery created the stage for the largest art festival in the world, the Echigo-Tsumari Triennial (ETT).
One profound piece easily seen from the road is German Thomas Eller’s Human Re-entering Nature (2000). Displaying his proposal of human relationships with the landscape, this mixed media piece is very confronting. He has placed a four metre high figure at the base of a hill and time has allowed vines to slowly wind their way over the man’s arms, chest and face. By the next triennial, in 2015, the figure will stand completely strangled by strong green vines. On a more conceptual level, from the side, Eller has positioned boards and poles to form the calligraphy character for ‘human’, which will also cover with vegetation over the following years. By hovering the word human over the lush scenery, Eller forces people to acknowledge the continuous cycle of matter. The fertile landscape is only possible through our eventual decomposition and its respect should therefore be incorporated into our lives.
It is unclear how many hundreds of works are in the festival as the permanent collection is constantly being complemented with new temporary pieces. With no hope of seeing every artwork positioned throughout the 760 square kilometre art ‘gallery’, the distance between the artworks is just as prominent and beautiful as the works themselves. Winding throughout land and communities, you cannot help but see community performances and regional vitality. The 200 villages open their homes as overnight accommodation and they are abuzz, selling fresh food and produce to passersby. Ubusana House opens its doors with smells of steamed ‘wild plant’ dumplings and boiled local rice, all served on pottery made by local craftsmen.