“Take All your Belongings With You”, Northern Alps Festival, Omachi, Japan, 2021
Two exhibition spaces represent the history of the Omachi region. The first room features a shadow installation narrating the history of salt transportation. With the help of two or three mechanical objects, fixed on the ceiling and rotating, the artwork presents drawings on green and blue transparent plastic. The drawings show the archaic rhythm of nomadic lifestyle: human mobility and long-distance travelling with carrying one’s burdens - either heavy cargo or sentiments.
The content of the second room is shaped by large watercolor paintings created with the local community. My idea is to paint human-sized portraits of active participants with the belongings that I will ask them to bring to our painting sessions. To be more specific, this performative gesture will be a modern reflection on the salt way undertaken by people in the past. In a metaphorical way, we all carry life baggage: hopes, desires and memories. With this work, I am asking: could we leave our luggage and keep going ahead with pure heads and souls?
I think that both religion and art are intermediaries in fulfilling these requests, and Buddhist temple is the place where you leave your distractions and begin to be present in the moment.
Photo credits: courtesy of the Northern Alps Festival
Music by Davor Vincze https://www.db-vincze.com