The sight that will welcome you as you enter the Echigo-Tsumari Art Field are the 33 man-made satellites at the entrance. The artists likened the relationship between Tokyo and Echigo-Tsumari to that of the “Earth and man-made Satellites” based on the emotions they felt when they visited this land.
What do Echigo-Tsumari and man-made satellites have in common? Moreover, each and every satellite in the artwork is made with now unusable old farming tools and everyday goods that were collected and turned in as a part of this project. What does this mean? The story may go something like this.
The man-made satellites that completed their purpose in space were not taken back to earth, and have been left to exist orbiting around the earth forever. Messages that do not manage to reach back to our planet are being sent out even now. These “Ghost Satellites” send and receive messages from one another, leading to the birth of a possible new connection.
Echigo-Tsumari also exists in the vicinity of Tokyo. And messages are continuously sent out. Currently there is beginning to be creation of more new networks between regions near Eichigo-Tsumari. In this way, new possibilities for these regions are continuously being formed. This is one of the themes of the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale.
This artwork located at the very entrance of the art festival may be the embodiment of that theme.
And here, the art poses a question to you.
Around the southern end of Niigata prefecture is a harsh area encircled by mountains that experiences some of the heaviest snowfall in Japan. In an area of 760km squared, this town is wider than Tokyo’s 23 wards combined, but the population is roughly only 65,000 people, or 1/130th of Tokyo’s 23 wards. People aged 65 and above occupy more than a third of the population, and the region is facing depopulation and ageing.
When you visit this land for the first time, I wonder what you will feel when you compare it to the place you live in.
This is a location that is referred to by many as the “countryside,” less progressive, less modern. But, precisely because it is the countryside it retains the memories and wisdom that the metropolis has lost. And more than just being retained and remembered, the things that are left behind are actually still being utilized… its a different pattern of life than we get in the cities.
I hope that during your travel you can also try to pick up on something valuable in the artwork that has been gathered at Echigo-Tsumari.