By Cathy Hirano

The Last Word On Setouchi Art Festival 2010

Curious about the festival’s impact on the islands and on people, I have been talking with local artists and friends involved in the festival as well as others like me who experienced it.


Seto Inland Sea

According to my sources, while many islanders warmly welcomed the visitors, they are now breathing a sigh of relief. The party is over and they are happy to return to the slower pace of “island time”.


Island time on Teshima


During the festival, particularly on weekends and through most of October, some villages were so crowded that local residents had difficulty just walking down the street to get home. And, unfortunately, some people left their garbage behind.

On the bright side, the islanders realized that people actually enjoyed coming to their islands. Left behind by mainstream society, their backwater villages are now on the brink of disappearing but the festival demonstrated that they do indeed have charm and potential. The question is where to go from here.


Teshima

If nothing else, Art Setouchi has forced those directly involved as well as those who just live here to ponder this very question. Further action, particularly by the islanders, is needed to explore the opportunities provided by the festival. Ideally, each island will develop their own style of collaboration with other people living in the prefecture as well as with artists – a collaboration that promotes sustainable action.


Lightening Shodoshima by Sense Art Studio

As a local and frequent visitor to the festival, I would have to say that it was nothing but positive. It gave me a chance to experience and appreciate the beauty of what we have. It also, as one friend aptly put it, served as a medium for people to make meaningful connections, with each other and with art and nature. What kept so many people going back? In their words…


Farther Memory by Chiharu Shiota

… art in architecture/architecture in art


Project by Aichi Prefectural University of Fine Arts and Music Team

… being able to walk right into an exhibit

House of Shodoshima by Wang Wen-Chih

and enjoy it like this


inside


and out!


…art in nature/nature in art


When You Think of an Island by Rika Aki, Shodoshima

…having the time to listen
…to voices whispering through bamboo pipes


Voices from Disappeared People by Dadang Christanto, Shodoshima

…and seashells quivering by a spring.

When You Think of an Island by Rika Aki, Shodoshima

… strange and wonderful encounters, such as walking through terraced rice fields in the middle of nowhere


and bumping into a friend from Tokyo.


Art within the ordinary made life extraordinary.


Hello Hachijuro by Hiroshi Fuji, Teshima


Ichigoya’s homemade strawberry sauce on ice, Teshima

And it was just so much fun!


For those of you who can, I hope you will consider going back to the islands on weekends and checking out the sites that are still open. The volunteers bravely manning the sites will be very glad to see you! If you don’t have a Japanese friend to read the schedules for you (See previous post), post a comment about where and when you want to go and I’ll let you know if it’s open.

For fans of Brazilian artist Oscar Oiwa

Oiwa Island, an amazing work drawn entirely with black magic markers and transformed into an endless landscape by mirrors, was sadly destroyed in a fire one month before the festival ended.



The work, however, has been awarded the festival’s grand prize. Many artists participated in the festival by invitation but some were chosen through a public screening process. Out of 721 entries, 20 artists were selected, and out of those, Oiwa’s Island won the prize. This grants the artist the right to participate in the next festival. We’ll look forward to seeing more of Oiwa’s work in Kagawa!

*Check out Oscar Oiwa’s site below to see a great video on the process of creating Oiwa’s Island.
http://www.oscaroiwastudio.com/oscar_website/pages.html/news.html
Video can also be accessed here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zr59vzndrcU