Second term of the third edition
August 20–October 2, 2022
Oshika Peninsula
Ishinomaki
Japan
The Reborn Art Festival is a comprehensive festival of art, music, and food at the area devastated by the Great East Japan Earthquake in 2011. It is based on the concept of “Reborn-Art” as a way to live. The first edition was held in 2017, the second in 2019, and in 2021 as the first term of the third edition. The 2022 festival has been holding as the second term of the third edition in revived towns and coasts.
Theme: “Altruism and Fluidity”
It seeks to once again move people’s imaginations and form relationships that allow for the creation of a new way of life inspired not by self-interest but concern for others and fluid way of engaging with difficulties and new things in order to feel all forms of life and connections to the source of life.
Art that invites visitors to an unknown world
11 years have passed since the Great East Japan Earthquake. Many memorials and various reconstruction efforts have cheered up the local people. And yet, we as outsiders have a sense of regret. While our safety is assured by the impressive seawalls that extend as far as the eye can see, we feel sad that we have lost contact with the beautiful ocean. Similarly, given that the 38-hectare Ishinomaki Minamihama Tsunami Memorial Park, which was built to commemorate the reconstruction and for the repose of the dead, is desolate and empty, further guiding principles are surely required for the future.
Since we launched Reborn Art Festival in Ishinomaki in 2017, we have been looking at this city through art. Our hope has been to share the joy and sorrow of the city by inviting many visitors to experience and feel works of art here.
For the 2022 festival, we intend to take things to the next stage. A war that is almost beyond belief is unfolding right now and the COVID-19 pandemic remains widespread across the planet. Many people around the world are despondent, which is directly related to the way we, as individuals, think and live in the present moment. The objective of art is to remind us of it and to make us question it thoroughly.
The key visual for the festival this time features an angel on a surfboard. Wearing swimwear, she is balancing with her arms spread wide and facing toward us. Upon closer inspection, there is a flame of hope on her wing, and her head is covered by a shape that indicates infinity. Looking more like a lover than a holy angel, she is the guide for this year’s festival. Together with her, we hope to emerge from the endless ruins of the past and step into a new world we have never seen before.
Curator’s message: Etsuko Watari, Koichi Watari (The Watari Museum of Contemporary Art)
Artists
Mariko Asabuki, Yosuke Amemiya, Kaoru Arima, Yusuke Iseya, Tetsuya Umeda, OSGEMEOS, Motohiko Odani, Sachiko Kazama, Izumi Kato, Tadashi Kawamata, Takeshi Kobayashi
, SIDE CORE (BIEN, EVERYDAY HOLYDAY SQUAD), Yuriko Sasaoka, Hiraki Sawa, Sou Fujimoto, 目 [mé], Takeshi Yasura, Shota Yamauchi, Kanji Yumisashi, Shinjiro Watanabe / Production Zomia (Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Irwan Ahmett & Tita Salina, Aung Myat Htay Ting Tong Chang, Mech Choulay & Mech Sereyrath, Montika Kham-on)
Music—sound for resilience
Reborn Art Festival’s music this year expresses
its connection to art and food while also envisioning recovery and rebirth.
The chair of the executive committee, Takeshi Kobayashi (musician and the director of ap bank) produced to hold a live concert with sensitive guest artists at the White Shell Beach in Oginohama that has become an indispensable venue for the festival and the location for “Reborn Art DINING” near the sculpture White Deer.
Sustainable food—the joy of innovation
Ishinomaki is blessed with a wealth of culinary resources from the earth, sea, and mountains. The Reborn Art Festival, together with producers and top chefs from throughout Japan, has always sought to shine a light on local ingredients and food culture. The 2021–22 edition will, to an even greater degree than before, provide the opportunity to explore food and art together with some of the region’s most notable food professionals.
Organisers: Reborn Art Festival Excecutive Commitee, ap bank
Special sponsor: Kinoshita Group
Grant: Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan
Press inquiries: press [at] iroiroiroiro.jp
Yasuko Ichikawa (iroiro, Inc.) and Hiroko Seki