Land art where history, culture, and environment coexist (7) The successful mobilization of funds, manpower, and artworks - the effects of two art festivals (Part 2)
The Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale, held once every three years, is taking place right now in Niigata, Japan. The author of this article (secretary-general of the Taiwan Historical Resources Management Association) has written a detailed account for readers who could not attend the event in person, describing the context in which the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale and the Setouchi Triennale came about, what they present, and the impact these art initiatives have had on the local area and on Japanese society. This article analyzes the volunteer participation and international exchange effects of the art festivals. To read other articles in the series, see the appendix at the end of the article.
Searching for a Second Hometown
Recruiting volunteers has always been a major feature of Fram Kitagawa's art curation. From the Faret Club Tachikawa Club onward, to the "Little Snake Corps" of the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale and the "Little Shrimp Corps" of the Setouchi Triennale, the aim has been to let volunteers cultivate a feeling for art through daily life and become part of local life. Many participants come from large cities such as Tokyo and Osaka. They not only take part in the creative work of artists and residents, but also serve as bridges between many overseas artists, festival performance groups and local residents, helping to stitch together the language and cultural gaps between the two sides.
The work of the Little Snake Corps volunteers is actually not easy. From morning to night every day, they provide immediate labor and knowledge support, including transporting creative materials, cleaning out vacant houses and abandoned schools, cleaning and restoring artworks, serving as translators for overseas artists, and welcoming visiting groups from home and abroad... and so on, sharing the considerable workload of the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale. For many young urban people, this hands-on work experience with communities and visitors is extremely precious.
The general public's impression of volunteers at art events is mostly of staff assisting with "guided tours." However, volunteer service at the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale and the Setouchi Triennale is also learning. It is not merely training volunteers in the expressive ability to explain artworks, but an art promotion and education effort that uses art as its rallying call and education as its foundation.
Before the event, through reading groups (artwork appreciation, artist introductions, regional geography and customs analysis, on-site surveys), discussion sessions, work meetings and other methods, volunteer team members from different places, different backgrounds and different ideas are brought together to spark ideas off one another, and through learning by doing, they come to understand the relationship between the art festival and the land, develop art appreciation skills, and then move on to actually assisting in carrying out the art festival. Recruiting art festival volunteers can be described as the "sowing of seeds" for art and environmental education, scattering environmental concepts about people and land across Japanese cities and at home and abroad.
(Note 1) Quoted from Quarterly Machizukuri No. 27 "Dialogue - Fram Kitagawa x Yukio Nishimura: Art Can Regenerate Regions," 2010, Gakugei Publishing.
(Note 2) In Japan, this refers to settlements with severe population decline and aging.