The forth and last day started with a cloudy day. In the garden of Sansei House, I enjoyed the view of the beautiful mountains.

First I headed to The “Tanokura Environment Sensor 2009-Thank Road Fox Roop-” by Kallos, who made a number of yellow streamers installed in the field, using the motif of the local tale about Sankuro Kitsune (fox).

Next, I visited to Koichi Sakao’s “Life Works + Green Room Project”. On the ground floor of the old house, there were frottage works created from pillars of each house in the village, transfering the power of the pillar that has supported the house for a long time. On the second floor, I was wrapped around various green colors. A variety of leaves transfered by different green color pencils covers the entire room. A volunteer staff, one of the neighbors, introduced us this work that there was a secret in the room. There was frottage of autumn leaves hidden behind a secret door.

Made “Shedding House” and their new work “Croquette House”, Junichi Kurakake + Nihon University College of Art Sculpture approached to revive a vacant house as art. I was surprised by its presence and artists hard work.

The Shedding House is made shaving the darken surface of the wooden house. The trace of shaving spread out on the floor, wall and even to the attic, which creates patterns of the shaving. By shaving away inside of the house, they opened up the space and created a new value to it. In contrast to this work, the Croquette House is a house wrapped by metal panels. Indeed it’s a croquette! You can see both shaving and wrapping houses in the same landscape.

Suddenly appearing in the woods was a strange building Kyororo (Echigo-Matsunoyama Museum of Natural Science). It looks like a big snake, it has red rust colors on the surface. The name Kyororo is followed after singing voice of Ruddy Kingfishers live in the woods, and the institution provides information on the nature around the neighbor area.

Chiharu Shioda made “House Memory”, creating a space where dark-colored wool is spread, filling the void of the room and weaving used furniture and clothes together with the yarn. Even you might fear looking inside it, you feel like experiencing the past memory created in the space.

The last work I saw was Last Class created using an entire closed school by Christian Boltanski and Jean Kalman. Walking around the dark inside, you only hear sound and wind, and feel a kind of atmosphere with an insensible light. There are no people around, but memories that remind you of something happened in the former school. I felt a bit fear with the dark and quiet school building.

Left behind many more interesting works, I needed to leave here after the 4 day long journey on the Echigo Tumari Triennial. My first visit to Niigata ended with a lot of satisfaction from the art festival and warmth from the people I met here in Niigata.

Farming is the main industry in the Tsumari area. The rural scenery from the old times is kept with immeasurable effort and wisdom of ancient people. The art festival was first launched to revitalize the historical, yet, depopulated and aged area. With a great understanding and support from the local residents and efforts of artists and volunteers, the festival was a great success for its ninth year. The smile of the local people must have given visitors happiness. This art festival convinced me that creating something becomes a power for someone. I am looking forward to the next festival in 3 years.

The Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial 2009 autumn is held from October 3rd until November 23rd. Check it out on the official website.

Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial 2009
Date: July 26th – September 13th, 2009
Place: Echigo-Tsumari region (Tokamachi City + Tsunan Town, Niigata Prefecture) 760 km²
Organized by: Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial Executive Committee
https://www.echigo-tsumari.jp