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鹿のゆくえ

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Imagining the Whereabouts of Deer

Curator:Hideki Toyoshima

At Reborn-Art Festival 2019 (RAF 2019), each of the seven areas on the Oshika Peninsula had its own curator, who set a theme and planned the exhibits.


One of those areas is Kozumi, located in the middle of the Oshika Peninsula and surrounded by mountains and a calm sea flowing into a bay. At the main Kozumi exhibition site is Fermento, a facility for butchering hunted deer and processing the venison. While making good use of deer as a local resource, this plant also works to exterminate deer that pose a serious ecological problem.


Meeting Nozomu Onodera, a hunter who runs Fermento, proved the start of a story of being guided by deer and seeing ourselves, which also became the theme of the Kozumi area for RAF 2019.

KOZUMI AREA 2019

At the exhibition site, a small artists’ village appeared, as if to surround the deer processing plant in Kozumi. Guided by deer as symbols or metaphors, and through the works of the artists, we had an experience akin to traveling around the world as seen through the narratives of the natural world. With deer as our road guides, we traveled to the perspectives and consciousness on a side that is not our own. When we had finished viewing the exhibits and returned to our world, we might have felt that it was no longer the world we knew. Perhaps, with that newly gained perspective, we came to reinterpret it as our world that is part of the deer world. Abstract as it may sound, this was the concept of the Kozumi area for RAF 2019.
More concretely, six groups or individuals—Yusuke Asai, Yayoi Arimoto and Nozomi Onodera, Daisaburo Sakamoto and Yuko Okubo, Rieko Shiga, Nao Tsuda, and Yumiko Horiba—presented artworks at Ferment and its surroundings as well as at prefabs temporarily installed for the exhibition. The landscape of this exhibition site looked like a small community that would not have come together if not for the guidance of the deer.

While RAF 2019 closed when the exhibition period came to an end, it seems that what started in Kozumi area didn’t stop, and each artist has continued to weave stories.

The artists and their works resided in the Kozumi area for a short time, and have cultivated ongoing ties with Ferment and Onodera through individual interactions with him and stopping by the plant.

And surely so have the deer of the Oshika Peninsula.
Since RAF 2019, we have thought about creating a place where we could share the continuation of what took place. With the spread of the coronavirus and natural disasters like heavy rains and typhoons, however, it has become increasingly difficult to freely visit the Oshika Peninsula and Kozumi. In particular, holding an event during the coronavirus pandemic requires great care, and the many uncertainties mean it is no easy matter.

For these reasons, we intend to share the projects with everyone using online platforms like a website, rather than organizing an actual exhibition or event.

The artists are continuing what took place at RAF 2019 using their respective forms and relationships. Reflecting this, content is uploaded to the website according to methods and timing suitable for each artist. An advantage of an online project is that those who live faraway or are refraining from going out can still experience the project in the same way.

Please imagine the whereabouts of deer while enjoying the project online. Try sending your consciousness to the Oshika Peninsula. In this way, you will sense that a time that is not here does indeed flow there. We can embark freely on journeys in our imaginations anywhere and anytime.

And that is one of the great strengths of art.
Kozumi Area Curator
Hideki Toyoshima
Born in 1971 in Osaka, Hideki Toyoshima’s wide-ranging activities encompass artworks, exhibition planning, spatial design, and workshops. As one of the main figures involved in the YNG collaboration with Yoshitomo Nara, he is well known for participating in its projects across the world, not least the exhibition “Yoshitomo Nara + graf A to Z” (2006, Aomori).

OUTLINE

OUTLINE

Reborn-Art Festival 2021-22
— Altruism and Fluidity —

【 Period 】

ONLINE : Jan 6 (Wed) 2021 -
SUMMER : Aug 11 (Wed/holi) 2021 - Sep 26(Sun) 2021
SPRING : Aip 23(Sat)2022 - Jun 5(Sun)2022
※ There will be a maintenance day during the session.

【 Venue 】

ー Summer ー
2021
Central Ishinomaki
Oshika peninsula(Momonoura、Oginohama、kozumihama、Ayukawa、and more...)

ー Spring ー
2022
Ishinomaki

【 Organizers 】

Reborn-Art Festival Executive Committee,
ap bank

【 Grants 】

the Agency for Cultural Affairs Government of Japan in the fiscal 2021

【 Translation 】
hanare × Social Kitchen Translation

【 Web direction 】
JUNYA KATO
(PARK GALLERY)