Touching Grass at the Echigo-Tsumari Art Field 2024

My introduction to Japan was through the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial, an art festival hosted once every 3 years in Niigata, Japan's largest rice producer.

The festival itself is spread across the prefecture. You can visit key museums for exhibits or find art installations lodged deep into the mountains. Its purpose is largely to display the relationship between mankind and nature. In a way, it is a reminder of how much humans depend on the natural landscape and a soft warning against industrialization.

As a chronically online New Yorker, it's a far cry from anything I normally enjoy doing. But I figured it would be a good stop before my first experience in Tokyo.

While discomforted by sweaty hikes and a disconnect from the Internet, there were a few haunting experiences I felt worth reflecting on.

1. Staying in Echigo Yuzawa

Not exactly the festival itself, but I spent most of my stay at an AirBnB in Echigo Yuzawa, a hot spring and ski resort area in Niigata. Honestly, it was the first time I'd ever stayed in a town this small; where after a few days of walking, I felt like I had been to every corner of the province.

Maybe it was the summer and tourism starts when snow falls, but the town seemed extra quiet with many of its stores closed. Other than the train station itself, the town was such a contrast from the usual New York City skyline. While I enjoyed the peacefulness the first two nights, I definitely felt a little understimulated by the third day. That being said though, I wonder if I would be a less anxious and internet attached person after staying here for a month.

At night, folks would just hang around a small public foot bath area and relax. Where would you ever find that in NYC?

2. Isobe Yukihisa

There was a memorial exhibit dedicated to the works of Isobe Yukihisa. Or rather, it's the gymnasium of the former Kiyotsukyo Elementary School which is exhibiting the work while storing it there.

You can read his Wikipedia article here, but the part of his story that interested me was that he had actually moved to New York in 1965 where he took part in the City of New York's Parks Department. In 1975, he took what he had learned about ecological planning and brought it back to teach Japanese people. Later in his life, he began making ecologically inspired art. One that struck me was Where has the river gone?

Kinda crazy to see how much land changes, huh?

3. 16 Ropes by Ilya Kabakov

In one of the museums, there is an exhibit. 16 ropes with 208 "garbage fragments" tied to it, each with a little fortune cookie sized pieces of text with phrases like:

"Put this nail deeper.
Otherwise it won't hold anything."

"Why did you go in the mud?
Who will wash this for you?"

"You'll be leaving soon.
Look, everyone has left."

One can only imagine the trash belongs to the people who had those conversations. It's a good reminder of the lived experiences of others and generated both a feeling of melancholy and sonder.

Bonus: Mole TV

There is this guy in a mole costume who hangs out inside of a hole and broadcasts a show. I respect the art, but I absolutely hated this with every fiber of my being.

Anyway, cool festival. Make sure to recycle. Hack the planet, but don't destroy it!