Have you seen through the two tricks?

First try walking towards the opposite side of the tunnel.
How is it different from the depth of the tunnel that you had imagined? Perhaps shorter than imagined or what you had thought. Or, perhaps from your perspective, you sense that the deeper you advanced into the tunnel, the larger you feel. That is the first trick.

And when you exit the tunnel, observe your surroundings again.
This is what is known as a “Kamaboko-type Storehouse”, a building you can find in the area of heavy snowfall. The tunnel is actually a storehouse in pretense. That is the second trick.

This work teaches us is that what we see is not necessarily what it is. Erlich, the artist, has many pieces of art that are easy to establish a familiar connection with because they manipulate humans’ sense of illusion. He is also responsible for the well-known “Swimming Pool” work in the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa.

And here, the art poses a question to you.

To what extent are you recognizing things that you usually see with your own eyes?

“Tunnel” and “Kamaboko-type Storehouse”.

You now have two keys in your hands that will help you learn about this region. Looking at the various artworks around the area is also synonymous with travelling the Echigo-Tsumari region itself. From this point forth, you can expect to find actual tunnels and kamaboko-type storehouses in the midst of your travels. Many people are pleasantly surprised by this.

But, what you if do not get to interact with these works in the first place?

People only want to see what they want to see. Excess visible information is unconsciously scraped off. That is the reason you may not notice a shop you walk by every day, until someone else points it out.

By now you’ve recognized that the key to knowing Echigo-Tsumari is via the artwork gathered here. With this, you may now be able to detect what you have missed. That is probably the third trick that Erlich has embedded.