The Japan News by The Yomiuri Shimbun
SETO INLAND SEA TRIENNALE ART FESTIVAL OPENS
TAKAMATSU — Art lovers are traveling to the Seto Inland Sea as contemporary artists from Japan and abroad display their work in the Setouchi Triennale 2022.
e Setouchi art festival is held every three years, with a primary goal of invigorating island communities and rejuvenating the sea. is year’s event is the h incarnation of the festival and comprises three phases: spring through May 18; summer from Aug. 5 to Sept. 4; and autumn from Sept. 29 to Nov. 6.
orough measures are being taken to avoid the spread of the novel coronavirus. Kagawa Gov. Keizo Hamada declared the event open at a ceremony in Takamatsu on April 14, with 34 artists appearing on the stage. Hamada is the chairman of the festival’s executive committee.
‘GIANT’ APPEARS ON SHODOSHIMA
e triennale is being staged this year at two harbors and 12 islands overall. e spring phase takes place in the two harbors and on eight islands.
“Daidaraurutorabou,” an artwork on display on Shodoshima island in Kagawa Prefecture, depicts a giant 9.5 meters high and 17 meters long. It was created by Toshimitsu Ito together with supporters from Hiroshima City University’s
Faculty of Arts, and was built by combining such materials as dri wood and stones removed from local construction sites and elsewhere.
“I was surprised at the size,” a 72-year-old woman from Takamatsu said. “e pandemic is still going on, but I want to enjoy the art festival while taking precautions against infection.”
Hiroshi Sugimoto’s “Glass Tea House ‘Mondrian,’” created in 2014, is on display at Benesse Art Site Naoshima on Naoshima island. Sugimoto is a renowned contemporary artist who actively works in photography and architecture.
A tea house for the traditional Japanese tea ceremony is usually an enclosed space with a hanging scroll and owers to express the season. However, the walls and ceiling of Sugimoto’s work are made of glass so people inside can directly experience the season and surrounding nature outside. e glass tea house is globally acclaimed — it was presented at the Venice Biennale International Architecture Exhibition in 2014 and at the Palace of Versailles in France.
GENTLE LIGHTING AT OUT-OF-USE INN
On Megijima island, works by eight individual and group artists are on display at the former Kotobuki-so inn.
Megijima is known for the popular legend of Momotaro, or Peach Boy.
It is said to be the actual location of Onigashima (the island of oni ogres), where Momotaro and his animal
followers travel to defeat oni. However, Okayama and other prefectures, there are various places that also lay claim to the legend of Momotaro.
“Onigashima pika-pika Centre” was created by Iwasawa Bros., formed by Hitoshi Iwasawa and Takashi Iwasawa as a tribute to the island and the legend.
e installation creates a fantastic space in a former guest room — about 20 paper bags containing light bulbs are suspended from the ceiling like lanterns, emitting a gentle glow. e work is based on the duo’s idea that the ogres did not rob people of their treasures but received them as gi s instead. In the creators’ minds, the ogres used the bags that contained these gi s to make lanterns.
e duo said they want people to “enjoy looking at things around them from a slightly di erent perspective.”
TIME TICKS AWAY IN OLD HOUSE
On Ogijima island, “Generative drawing for Japanese paper house 2.0” by Goro Murayama of Tokyo takes up an entire two-story house that was built about 90 years ago. White and yellow lines are drawn on interior walls of the old house, which was used as a store and residence by a merchant family.
e motif was drawn from da odils that Murayama found on the island.
“I hope visitors will feel the time marked by this building, amid the unique sensation of time passing on the island,” said Murayama.