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Echigo-Tsumari is a place to visit in any season

The next Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale is ready to be held in 2024. However, in Echigo-Tsumari, you can enjoy a year-round exhibition of approximately 200 works which have remained in place since 2000 along with the beautiful scenery that changes seasonally. They include artworks by internationally renowned artists such as Christian Boltanski, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Anthony Gormley, Leandro Erlich, Esther Stocker, Yayoi Kusama, Tadashi Kawamata, Kohei Nawa, Lee Bul, MAD Architects, and Dominique Perrault.

In addition, Echigo-Tsumari offers special exhibitions, performances, workshops, and seasonal local foods, and you can stay overnight at spa resorts as well as at artworks, including House of Light by James Turrell, Dream House by Marina Abramovic, Shedding House by Junichi Kurakake, Ubusuna House by seven Japanese top ceramic artists, and Australia House by Andrew Burns and Brook Andrew.

Ilya & Emilia Kabakov: The Monument of Tolerance.
© Photo: Nakamura Osamu

Yukimi Gozen ceremonial meal.
© Photo: Nakamura Osamu

One of the heaviest snowfall regions in the world, Echigo-Tsumari has a completely different appearance in winter from the summer. During the winter season, a variety of programs allow visitors to experience the overwhelming snow and the way of local life that has been fostered in the area. You can enjoy artworks and special exhibitions featuring snow, as well as traditional winter events.

The bus tours allow visitors to experience these events and the "Yukimi Gozen" lunch, which used to be served as ceremonial meal with lacqured ware in old days. In this program, local mothers entertain the guests by arranging their own special "Hare no Hi" (special occasion) dishes on the gozen, which is filled with the wisdom of life in the snow country.

Echigo-Tsumari Art Field 2023 Winter SNOWART
Special activities, itineraries and events for both children and adults to enjoy, combining SNOW and ART, 14 January - 12 March, 2023.
detailed information

Winter is the best time to visit Echigo-Tsumari!

Special Features by UiU:

Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale

This project fundamentally distinguishes itself from other biennials or triennials. The Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial is the world's largest international art festival. It doesn't take place in a big urban center, but in a rural region of 762 km2, encompassing Tokamachi City and Tsunan Town. The Echigo-Tsumari region is located at the southern end of Niigata Prefecture, a two-hour train ride north from Tokyo.

Participants of the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial include stars of the international art scene, as well as emerging artists from around the world and numerous Japanese artists. In cooperation with the local population, they create site-specific works in rice paddies and forests, on riversides and mountainsides, along streets, in plazas and abandoned houses. In this way, the artists get to know the spirituality and hospitality of the people and a landscape which lie under a thick blanket of snow for 6 months out of the year. Many works remain permanently. In addition, there is the implementation of new architectural designs.

The triennial is part of an extensive 10-year development program for the region, the Art Necklace Project. It was begun in 1997 by 6 municipalities and the Niigata Prefecture, in order to make art and culture the motor behind the revitalization of a region which had remained apart from Japan's rapid development. However, it's not only about boosting tourism. Through interaction with artists from other places, the inhabitants' consciousness is meant to be awakened so that strength for a new beginning can come from their own culture and local traditions.

As General Director Fram Kitagawa wrote, the Echigo-Tsumari Triennial was conceived with the firm belief "that the landscape and the life of the people, both of which have been fostered with the blessing of nature since 5000 years ago, and the long relationship with the earth through agriculture are the most precious treasures of this region".


Organizer, contact:

Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale Executive Committee

Co-organizer: NPO Echigo-Tsumari Satoyama Collaborative Organisation
Chairman: Sekiguchi Yoshifumi (Mayor of Tokamachi City)
Co-chairman: Kuwahara Haruka (Mayor of Tsunan Town)
Honorary Chairman: Hanazumi Hideyo (Governor of Niigata Prefecture)
General Producer: Fukutake Soichiro (Chairman of Fukutake Foundation/Honorary Advisor of Benesse Holdings)
General Director: Kitagawa Fram (Art Director)
Creative Director: Sato Taku (Graphic Designer)
Leader of Official Supporters: Takashima Kohey (Representative Director, CEO, Oisix ra daichi Inc.)

Contact:
NPO Echigo-Tsumari Satoyama Collaborative Organisation
c/o Museum on Echigo-Tsumari (MonET)
6-1-72-1 Honmachi, Tokamachi-city, Niigata 948-0003
TEL: +81-025-761-7767
FAX: +81-025-761-7911
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