Every three years, over three hundred square miles of land in the Niigata prefecture of Japan are transformed into the largest and most ambitious art installation in the world: the Echigo-Tsumaria Art Triennale. Created by Tokyo-based gallery Art Front Gallery (AFG), the exciting event is host to some of the best-known landscape artists, sculptors and architects from all over, with exhibitions scattered throughout the two hundred local villages that dot the mountains and rice fields of northern Japan.
Started in 2000, the festival recently completed its 6th run, with over half a million art lovers making the trek to experience the unique art project. To commemorate fifteen years of art exhibitions and celebrate the relationships forged between global artists at the Triennale, director and curator Fram Kitagawa has compiled Art Place Japan. This comprehensive catalogue displays the 800 artworks that have been featured over the past fifteen years and serves as a travel guide, with a host of essays and maps of the massive festival.
The purpose of this sprawling art event is to enable visitors to rediscover “relationships between nature, art and humanity” and to forge collaborations that connect “people with each other, and the land,” which it does, in a massive way. Art Place Japan celebrates this extensive exhibition, and gives an intimate glimpse into the workings of the Triennale for those who missed it this year; the book will be released November 14th 2015, through Amazon and other online retailers.
Above: Gift for Frozen Village; Artist-Kyota Takahashi; Photo by Osamu Nakamura
Tsumari in Bloom; Artist- Yayoi Kusama; Photo by Osamu Nakamura
For Lots of Lost Windows; Artist- Akiko Utsumi?; Photo by T. Kuratani
Yamanaka Zutsumi Spiral Works; Artist- Chiyoko Todaka; Photo by Hisao Ogose
Rolling Cylinder; Artist- Carsten Hller; Photo by Osamu Nakamura
To the Dead, to the Living; Artist- Yoshio Kitayama; Photo by Anzai
Restructure; Artist- Harumi Yukutake; Photo by Masanori Ikeda
House Memory; Artist-Chiharu Shiota; Photo by Takenori Miyamoto
The Day After Tomorrow Newspaper Cultural Department; Artist-Katsuhiko Hibino; ?Photo by T. Kobayashi?
Sun and Footprints; Artist- Takahito Kimura, Photo by Osamu Nakamura
Lost #6; Artist-Ryota Kuwakubo; Photo by Osamu Nakamura
The Tower? and the Red Dragonfly; Artist- Shintaro Tanaka; Photo by Anzai
Super High-Resolution Human Size Photographs of Insects; Artist- Norihisa Hashimoto; Photo by T.Kobayashi
Hachi & Seizo Tashima Museum of Picture of Picture Book Art; Artist-Seizo Tashima
Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale: Website
