ArtAsiaPacific: Highlightsfrom Echigo Tsumari Art Field S2018 Winter Snow Art Festival

View of the Echigo-Tsumari region, where the SnowArt festival unfolds. All photos by Peter Augustus Owen for ArtAsiaPacific.

This February, the 2018 edition of Echigo-Tsumari Art Field’s winter SnowArt festival launched in the scenic, snow-filled meadows of Niigata Prefecture. The massive production, spanning multiple venues and featuring several international artists, was envisioned by Tokyo-based Art Front Gallery and Setouchi Triennale director Fram Kitagawa, who has directed the event since its inception, and who is noted for his activities relating to community development through art.

SnowArt, which runs from February 24 through March 11, 2018, brings visitors to a small farming community to celebrate contemporary art in a traditional Japanese setting. Those willing to brave several meters of snow can discover innovative site-specific installations that are creatively integrated within the surrounding landscape.

The festival makes use of existing buildings—museums and repurposed elementary schools, for example—along with objects built entirely of snow to showcase the artwork and interactive experiences that make SnowArt unique. Here are the highlights from this year’s event, which culminated with a spectacular firework show—the world’s largest display over snow—seen from a field filled with “blooming flowers of light” titled Gift for Frozen Village 2018 by Kyota Takahashi.

YOSHINORI FUJI’s Li Kao Ni Nattare! (2018) sits on the former playground of Nunagawa Campus, an elementary school that was closed in March 2014.

Glasses Project (2018) by MICHIO HORIKAWA was also presented on the grounds of the Nunagawa Campus.

JUNICHI KURAKAKE collaborated with students from the Nihon University College of Art’s sculpture course to carve a scene inspired by the natural beauty of the surrounding area. The work can be found in the former elementary school’s entryway.

Self Muko-nage (2018) by TAKEYOSHI ISHIMATSU and the Nagoya Institute of Technology Ishimatsu Lab, is designed to recreate the feeling of a Koshogatsu ritual practiced in Echigo-Tsumari, where newlywed men are thrown from the top of the cliff. In this much more controlled version of the tradition, visitors climbed up a staircase of snow steps to slide down into a pit of soft white and blue plastic balls. The installation is open only to visitors on guided tours.

General director of the Setouchi Triennale and SnowArt festival, Fram Kitagawa, joins in the fun.

At the Matsudai History Museum is a restaged version of NOZOMI TANAKA’s installation from the 2015 Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale. The museum also presented local folk stories and origami workshops for visitors.

The “Snowy Wonderland” event, which took place in the courtyard of the Echigo-Tsumari Satoyama Museum of Contemporary Art / KINARE, featured an interactive installation titled Snow Board by JUNICHI KURAKAKE. Visitors could try the winter sport on a slope leading down to Red and White (2018) by TAKASHI NISHIBORI and WIT PIMKANCHANAPONG, which comprises two planes of red streamers.

TAKEYOSHI ISHIMATSU returned this year for “Kamakura de Mole TV,” an underground radio station housed inside a kamakura (snow igloo), located outside the museum, from which the artist hosted a live stream during the festival.

Kotatsu Car Circuit (2018) by TAKAFUMI FUKASAWA was also presented at the Echigo-Tsumari Satoyama Museum of Contemporary Art / KINARE. The installation features a pedal-powered vehicle made from a kotatsu—a wooden table covered by a blanket with a heat source underneath—with a bowl full of Japanese snacks as a steering wheel.

The sculpture The Spiral Basilisk (2018) by KENJI HOSHINO, seen at the Echigo-Tsumari Satoyama Museum of Contemporary Art / KINARE, had a serpentine form, and paid homage to snakes, which are considered sacred in parts of Japan.

The 5th annual Echigo-Tsumari Snow Fireworks took place over a field full of “blooming flowers of light.” Thousands of colored LED lights were buried in the snow as part of KYOTA TAKAHASHI’s Gift for Frozen Village 2018.

Completed in 2000 during the first Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale after general director Fram Kitagawa requested a “meditation house” for the Echigo-Tsumari region, The House of Light by artist JAMES TURRELL makes use of natural and artificial light to illuminate the structure. The architectural work of art is available for booking overnight stays year-round.

Tokyo-based art writer Peter Augustus Owen is the former associate publisher of ArtAsiaPacific.

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Mar 2017

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Highlights from Echigo-Tsumari Art Field’s 2018 Winter SnowArt Festival