Paper short abstract:

International art festivals in the Japanese countrysides could be characterized by an odd mixture of contemporary art and nostalgia in the natural environment. This paper explores how Typhoon #15 in 2019 affected the local's perceptions toward nature and meanings of artworks in their land.

Paper long abstract:

Japan is facing the major crisis of a rapidly aging society in which at anytime natural disasters can occur. The demographic and environmental transformations are felt with fear and uncertainty. Aging and depopulation seriously strike the countryside harder than in the city. While it is impossible to prevent the decline of population, some areas try to bring more tourists or enhance the exchanges between visitors and locals through international art exhibitions, called geijutsusai in Japanese. It is a cultural phenomenon in the last two decades, led by the Tsumari Art Triennale in Niigata Prefecture and Art Setouchi Triennale staged on islands in the Seto Inland Sea. There are many other art festivals generated in the Japanese countrysides aiming at the revitalization of the aging communities. Such art festivals are characterized by their odd mixture between collaborative contemporary art and nostalgia, embraced by the natural environment while reinventing the abandoned old public-school buildings. The artworks go beyond the white cube of the traditional art museum, while engaging with the locals and their collective memories.

This paper focused on a case study - Ichihara Art×Mix which began in 2014 in order to revitalize the depopulated, agricultural southern area of Ichihara City in Chiba Prefecture, a one-hour drive from the metropolitan area of Tokyo. This is the author's continuing research of the art festival from its outset. Their third art festival will be held from March 20th to May 17th 2020, but the region was seriously hit by a typhoon in September 2019. It became a disaster zone without electric power for weeks. How did such a natural disaster and its damage affect the collaboration between the artists and locals toward the realization of those artworks in their environment? Through examining major artworks and by interviews, this paper investigates the aftermath of the typhoon and how the locals confronted their natural environments and how that affected to reconceive and to redefine their artworks.