Shuji Yamamoto, Re-reading the Landscape, 2013. Photo: Kuniya Oyamada.

Towada Oirase Art Festival 2013: SURVIVE

September 21–November 24

www.artstowadaoirase.jp

Inaugurated on September 21, Towada Oirase Art Festival has been attracting large number of visitors. A small music festival directed by Yoshitomo Nara will also be held in October. In the Towada Oirase area, you can experience many rich expressions of nature, from autumn tints to the first snowfall of the season. Please come and enjoy one of the Japan’s foremost tourist resources.

Participating artists: Sen Ishida*, Tetsuya Umeda, Taro Okamoto, Masatsugu Ono, Ragnar Kjartansson, Marcus Coates, Erika Kobayashi*, contact Gonzo, Lieko Shiga, Nobuhiro Shimura, Kenji Shibata, Keijiro Suga*, Akira Takayama (Port B), Shimpei Takeda, Yoshitomo Nara (special thanks), Naoya Hatakeyama*, mamoru, Aiko Miyanaga, Shuji Yamamoto, and more

*Participating artists for the festival’s anthology

Venue: Towada Art Center, Former Kasaishi Residence (important cultural property), Fisheries rest house (former Touji no yado Oirase), Oirase information hakocco, Oirase streamside station, Hoshino resort Oirase Keiryu Hotel, Oirase Stream Museum, Towada Lake excursion boat (Yasumiya / Nenokuchi), etc.

In celebration of the fifth anniversary of the Towada Art Center, Towada city is staging the first Towada Oirase Art Festival in the city area (mainly around the Towada Art Center itself), Oirase, and Lake Towada. Held under the theme of “time,” this art festival focuses on three main pillars: exhibitions, the publication of the festival’s anthology, and seminars.

It can be said that the Tohoku earthquake and tsunami of March 11, 2011, shook our sense of time. The sheer scale of this earthquake (which occurs only once every 1,000 years) made a profound impact on the human world, which has been developing over the past hundreds of years.

However, the flow of time is diverse. The Oirase and Lake Towada areas have a complex and diversified ecosystem created by the accumulation of an unimaginable amount of time.

This art festival aims to go beyond the existing concept of “time” and to expand many different ideas of time across Towada Oirase. Towada Oirase Art Festival hopes to propose the new possibility of our time and art to Japan and the rest of the world.

Event information
“The Little Concert in The Blue Woods” directed by Yoshitomo Nara
A small three-day music festival will be directed by Yoshitomo Nara, an artist who is also well versed in music. The event will be held on a stage designed by Nara and we will invite musicians who work in many genres to participate. Please come and enjoy this music festival conducted in beautiful surroundings.
Venues: Towada Art Center, Hoshino Resort Oirase Keiryu Hotel, concert venues in Towada city
Organizers: Towada Oirase Art Festival 2013 Executive Committee

Contact: Towada Oirase Art Festival 2013 Press Office: [email protected]

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