Matsunoyama Town is a hot-spring resort with the rice plantation spread over the mountain slope. There is a splendid harmony with artworks.

‘Dream House’, Marina Abramovic

Visiting the Matsunoyama Town, a strange house comes in sight. It’s ‘Dream House’ by Marina Abramovic. The house is standing silently like a haunted house in an out-of-the-way place. Visitors listen to old tales by the fireside, change their clothes to pajamas designed by the artist, take a crystal bath and sleep in a coffin-like bed in the ‘room for dreaming’. Then they write down their dreams in the ‘dream book’ and the stories will be passed down from generation to generation like old folktales.

‘SALT’, Saburo Muraoka

The next one is ‘SALT’ by Saburo Muraoka, a pioneer of ‘welding art’. Once you enter this triangular structure, you’ll see a large quantity of rock salt, feel the whole structure with your hands, smell the salt melting, hear voices talking in the distance through the iron roadway and hear your own voices as if a different person is talking to you. You can feel the work using the five senses.

‘PUBLIC THINGS’, N55

In contrast to ‘SALT’, ‘PUBLIC THINGS’ by N55 is a pretty modern object. As the name shows, it’s installed in some small open spaces to be used for many people. It can be used as a kitchen for its heat-resistance, as a bed when the thin mat covered with vinyl, as a desk and chair and as a speaker through a transparent hose and funnel-shaped pipe. Also, its solar panel collects solar heat so that it can be used as an energy to light a lamp. This work is used in many ways for many purposes. It would be also interesting to find out your own way to use it. Many people would be gathered around this object and camping out during summer.