Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial

Got the day off cos of the Hakkai-san hike yesterday. With my spiffy Nissan Cube replacement car (while my car's getting its radiator changed), I took an hour's drive to 松代 Matsudai to view some of the exhibits of the 3rd Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial. Echigo is the former name of Niigata prefecture. Tsumari is the region where the exhibition is held. It is a very rural region in the mountains that comprises mainly rice fields and 4m of snow in winter.

There are more than 300 modern art pieces done by more than 200 artists from 46 countries. The result is a rather interesting combination of modern art set in the traditional rural landscape. Although it sounds rather incompatible, I think it's quite reflective of Japan actually - you get the two extremes of uber-modern and ultra-traditional rolled into 1 country.
First sight that greeted me was this mutant ladybird flower thingy. It looked really strange sprouting out in the middle of the field just behind the railway station.

I chose to take the 2-hour walking route which covered some 20 exhibits in central Matsudai. Some people purchased the Art Triennial passport and stamped their passport at every exhibit. Can't believe they can be bothered...the exhibition spans a really wide area!

The rice fields. Depicts the traditional way of rice farming. (Russia)

Being creative with garages. (Japan)

Scarecrow project. The red figures show a farmer's family working in a terraced rice field. (Brazil)

Music around the igloo. Hitting the "stones" around the clay igloo produces music.

Yuki daruma. Snowmen from winter are preserved and displayed in freezers. (Japan)

My favourite: Kakashi no yomeiri. Results of a scarecrow-making competition in Tokyo using recycled materials are displayed here. (Japan)

Quite scary I think.

Cute

Pretty

Simply hilarious!