A collaborative exhibition between the Setouchi Triennale and Isetan Mitsukoshi was held for one week from October 26th at the Center Park/TOKYO Liberation Zone on the second floor of the Isetan Shinjuku Main Building. On October 27th, during the exhibition, a talk event was held featuring Setouchi Triennale general director Fram Kitagawa and contemporary artist Shinro Ohtake, whose work has been exhibited at Benesse Art Site Naoshima and the Setouchi Triennale. The two discussed the appeal of the Setouchi Triennale, and Ohtake shared behind-the-scenes stories about the creation of works that have been exhibited in the past. The two, who first met through Setouchi Triennale, shared their honest thoughts about the contemporary art world, offering a glimpse of their harmonious yet passionate sides.
Contemporary artist Ohtake Shinro and Setouchi Triennale General Director Kitagawa Fram
●Please tell us about the theme of the Setouchi Triennale, "Restoring the Sea."
Kitagawa: First of all, Japan is surrounded by the sea, and its environment is different from that of other countries. Britain is also an island nation, but Japan has even more rain and soil because warm and cold currents collide. Thanks to this, Japanese culture was born and nurtured through an intimate relationship with rain and soil. I believe this is the cultural intrigue and richness of Japan, an island nation in the Far East. Ethnic groups that crossed the continent to Japan established ports wherever they arrived, and cultures were developed along the rivers. The Seto Inland Sea is a land where culture developed alongside the calm seas. Originally, it was a free and easy-going island. However, as civilization gradually developed, refineries were built, the island became desolate, industrial waste was dumped, and the image of an "isolated island" became established. The population steadily declined. This situation was very unfortunate, and the islanders lacked prospects. On Naoshima, Soichiro Fukutake built Benesse House, sparking a movement to revitalize the island through art, which led to the start of Setouchi Triennale. I first came to Naoshima around 1998, when Ohtake's "Shipyard Works" was already there.
● Shinro Ohtake, who moved to Uwajima in the early 1990s and continued his artistic career. What was the story behind your encounter with the Seto Inland Sea?
Otake: Naoshima is now recognized as a center of contemporary art, but the first time I set foot on the island was shortly after Benesse House was built on the island. People from Benesse came to see me in Uwajima and asked me to come and see the newly opened art museum on Naoshima. To be honest, I didn't have high expectations when I heard it was an "art facility on an island." But when I actually went to Naoshima, the museum was designed by Tadao Ando, and it was filled with works that I had only seen in art books since I was in high school. I was extremely shocked. I thought, "This is a place I've never seen before." After that, I was invited to participate in an outdoor sculpture exhibition (Open Air '94 Out of Bounds - Contemporary Art in the Seascape), and I began creating works.
●Please tell us about your first piece, "Shipyard Works," which was installed on the beach in Naoshima. Otake: The Shipyard Works series was created for my 1990 solo exhibition, "Shipyard Works," in Tokyo, using discarded ship forms from a shipyard in Uwajima. I drilled many holes in the wooden stern mold, erected the bottom, and even installed the bow of the ship on the beach in Naoshima. At first, I received calls from fishermen reporting that their fishing boats had run aground and been destroyed. At the time, the island was a laid-back place where you could see old ladies with wheelbarrows sunbathing and chatting everywhere. In 2001, I exhibited a work titled "Ochiai Shoten" at the group exhibition "Standard." It was a work that displayed artworks inside a closed general store. Over the three-month exhibition, it attracted over 10,000 visitors, which was a huge success at the time. A few years later, as many as 200,000 people came to see contemporary art annually. In recent years, Naoshima has even been included in the top 20 most popular Japanese destinations in international travel magazines. I'm amazed at how things have changed.
●Please tell us about your 2016 new work, "Needle Factory" in Teshima, and how it came about.
Otake: It all started when Soichiro Fukutake asked me to create an artwork on the site of a former knitting needle manufacturing factory in Teshima. The piece is a wooden boat mold measuring approximately 17 meters in length that had been abandoned at a shipyard in Uwajima for about 30 years, placed in the center of the needle factory site. When building a fishing boat, a wooden mold the same size as the boat is made, but after the boat was completed, it became a huge piece of junk, so it was left abandoned as a giant trash can in the shipyard. I made it into a work of art and transported it. When I moved from Tokyo to Uwajima, I was initially interested in the junk at the shipyard. Since the items lying around the shipyard were things you wouldn't find in Tokyo, I've used them to create many three-dimensional works. At night, lights installed inside the wooden molds in this "Needle Factory" shine onto the floor.
Ohtake Shinro "Needle Factory" Photo: Miyawaki Shintaro
●Please tell us about your 2013 work, Megijima's "Mekon," and how it came about.
Ohtake: This work was created in the courtyard of Megijima's only elementary school. This is a depopulated island and the elementary school is currently closed. When I first came to Megijima, I was impressed by how wild and lively the plants were, so I created this work around the theme of the vitality of plants and the roots that symbolize that. This red object standing here is a buoy that washed up on the shores of Uwajima. The inside of the buoy was hollowed out and a large palm tree that grew on Megijima was inserted like a vase. When creating the work, the school was closed so the water and electricity buildings in the courtyard could not be altered, so instead, they were surrounded by iron plates and then covered with tiles and installed a large number of neon tubes. The work is intended to have the atmosphere of a tropical botanical garden.
Mekon Photo: Watanabe Osamu
Continued in Part 2: "Kitagawa Fram x Otake Shinro, public baths and love hotels... Discovering new values in 'local' Japan."
Contemporary artist Ohtake Shinro and Setouchi Triennale General Director Kitagawa Fram
●Please tell us about the theme of the Setouchi Triennale, "Restoring the Sea."
Kitagawa: First of all, Japan is surrounded by the sea, and its environment is different from that of other countries. Britain is also an island nation, but Japan has even more rain and soil because warm and cold currents collide. Thanks to this, Japanese culture was born and nurtured through an intimate relationship with rain and soil. I believe this is the cultural intrigue and richness of Japan, an island nation in the Far East. Ethnic groups that crossed the continent to Japan established ports wherever they arrived, and cultures were developed along the rivers. The Seto Inland Sea is a land where culture developed alongside the calm seas. Originally, it was a free and easy-going island. However, as civilization gradually developed, refineries were built, the island became desolate, industrial waste was dumped, and the image of an "isolated island" became established. The population steadily declined. This situation was very unfortunate, and the islanders lacked prospects. On Naoshima, Soichiro Fukutake built Benesse House, sparking a movement to revitalize the island through art, which led to the start of Setouchi Triennale. I first came to Naoshima around 1998, when Ohtake's "Shipyard Works" was already there.
● Shinro Ohtake, who moved to Uwajima in the early 1990s and continued his artistic career. What was the story behind your encounter with the Seto Inland Sea?
Otake: Naoshima is now recognized as a center of contemporary art, but the first time I set foot on the island was shortly after Benesse House was built on the island. People from Benesse came to see me in Uwajima and asked me to come and see the newly opened art museum on Naoshima. To be honest, I didn't have high expectations when I heard it was an "art facility on an island." But when I actually went to Naoshima, the museum was designed by Tadao Ando, and it was filled with works that I had only seen in art books since I was in high school. I was extremely shocked. I thought, "This is a place I've never seen before." After that, I was invited to participate in an outdoor sculpture exhibition (Open Air '94 Out of Bounds - Contemporary Art in the Seascape), and I began creating works.
●Please tell us about your first piece, "Shipyard Works," which was installed on the beach in Naoshima. Otake: The Shipyard Works series was created for my 1990 solo exhibition, "Shipyard Works," in Tokyo, using discarded ship forms from a shipyard in Uwajima. I drilled many holes in the wooden stern mold, erected the bottom, and even installed the bow of the ship on the beach in Naoshima. At first, I received calls from fishermen reporting that their fishing boats had run aground and been destroyed. At the time, the island was a laid-back place where you could see old ladies with wheelbarrows sunbathing and chatting everywhere. In 2001, I exhibited a work titled "Ochiai Shoten" at the group exhibition "Standard." It was a work that displayed artworks inside a closed general store. Over the three-month exhibition, it attracted over 10,000 visitors, which was a huge success at the time. A few years later, as many as 200,000 people came to see contemporary art annually. In recent years, Naoshima has even been included in the top 20 most popular Japanese destinations in international travel magazines. I'm amazed at how things have changed.
●Please tell us about your 2016 new work, "Needle Factory" in Teshima, and how it came about.
Otake: It all started when Soichiro Fukutake asked me to create an artwork on the site of a former knitting needle manufacturing factory in Teshima. The piece is a wooden boat mold measuring approximately 17 meters in length that had been abandoned at a shipyard in Uwajima for about 30 years, placed in the center of the needle factory site. When building a fishing boat, a wooden mold the same size as the boat is made, but after the boat was completed, it became a huge piece of junk, so it was left abandoned as a giant trash can in the shipyard. I made it into a work of art and transported it. When I moved from Tokyo to Uwajima, I was initially interested in the junk at the shipyard. Since the items lying around the shipyard were things you wouldn't find in Tokyo, I've used them to create many three-dimensional works. At night, lights installed inside the wooden molds in this "Needle Factory" shine onto the floor.
Ohtake Shinro "Needle Factory" Photo: Miyawaki Shintaro
●Please tell us about your 2013 work, Megijima's "Mekon," and how it came about.
Ohtake: This work was created in the courtyard of Megijima's only elementary school. This is a depopulated island and the elementary school is currently closed. When I first came to Megijima, I was impressed by how wild and lively the plants were, so I created this work around the theme of the vitality of plants and the roots that symbolize that. This red object standing here is a buoy that washed up on the shores of Uwajima. The inside of the buoy was hollowed out and a large palm tree that grew on Megijima was inserted like a vase. When creating the work, the school was closed so the water and electricity buildings in the courtyard could not be altered, so instead, they were surrounded by iron plates and then covered with tiles and installed a large number of neon tubes. The work is intended to have the atmosphere of a tropical botanical garden.
Mekon Photo: Watanabe Osamu
Continued in Part 2: "Kitagawa Fram x Otake Shinro, public baths and love hotels... Discovering new values in 'local' Japan."
![Kitagawa Fram and Ohtake Shinro: Public Baths, Love Hotels, and New Values Discovered in Local Japan [Conversation 2/2]](https://wrqc9vvfhu8e.global.ssl.fastly.net/api/image/crop/380x380/images/migration/2016/11/25e0d810ce58b1bb5fb05501d154f140.jpg)
