I am interested in art projects that bring energy to a deserted place.
In this bad economy, small villages in countryside in Japan, have been having difficult time.
Last month, I had a chance to visit a small fishing village in Naoshima island in the Seto inland sea to see contemporary art, called Art House Project.
This project has been successfully bringing young visitors to this small island from not only from Japan, but from all over the world.
Naoshima island is located in middle of no where, where people would overlook, but the scenery is so calm and beautiful. They have a population of about 3,500 people.
In this island, in Honmura village, their art activities called “the Art House Project’ began more than 10 years ago. The method used in Naoshima is site specific permanent work. They invited contemporary artists and let them select a site in the village. And then, each artist planned and produced work for that location. The architectural space which are houses that were inhabited for many years. Since the young people moved out to the big cities to get jobs, some of these houses became vacant and ruined over the years. Invited artists attempted to transform these old houses into works of art. Artworks are not exhibited inside these buildings, rather, art and architecture are coexisted together in the environment. The artists began by specifically understanding nature and history of each site of Naoshima, then decided what kind of art work should be made. They remodeled these old houses, transforming the space of each house into an artwork. All the works are open to public.
Arriving to the island, first, we got on a small local bus to get to a dentist house. Long time ago. this house was dentist office and it became ruined. The contemporary artist, Shinro Otake transformed this house into his own art work. Otake is well known as collage artist who makes scrap book endlessly in both 2D and 3D. For this project, he worked on this house was to paint and collage using the whole house as canvases. He saved various materials that are aged and rusted over time. He also saved old Japanese architectural elements such as windows, pillars, doors and even small children’s graffiti and scribbling that were found on the earthy walls. He also travels around the world and produces artworks. He decided to incorporate the shape of the boat in order to show the feeling of movement.
There are about 8 art house projects on view in this village.
The most amazing drawing/painting installation was done by Senju Hiroshi titled " The falls"(2006). This house is called "Ishibashi(stone bridge)" . To view his installation,
click
here.
For more detailed information on Art House Project in Naoshima, please check out the website:
www.naoshima-is.co.jpThe following images are installation views of the photographs by Hiroshi Sugimoto. He is famous for a series, titled "Seascapes". By exposing this framed black and white photographs to the severe environment outside of the museum(the museum building is designed by Tadao Ando), he is looking for weathering his artworks over time. He also installed one of his works on the cliff!
To view more of his seascapes, click,
here
