ART | Reborn-Art Festival 2021-22［後期］

Central Ishinomaki Area

Reborn-Art Festival this term takes place in front of Ishinomaki Station as well as at venues familiar to local residents, including a former public bathhouse, former fish shop and skating rink.

Artists

Memorial Park Area

This coastal area includes Ishinomaki Minamihama Tsunami Memorial Park, which was built in Minamihama, a district severely damaged by the Great East Japan Earthquake, Kadonowaki Elementary School, whose devastated building remains preserved to memorialize the disaster, and Nippon Paper Industries’ Ishinomaki factory. Artworks are exhibited at the Memorial Park as well as at nearby warehouses and a former dormitory of Nippon Paper Industries that survived the earthquake. Along with central Ishinomaki, it is one of the two main areas for the festival.

Artists

Watanoha Area

Watanoha is located at the entrance to the scenic Mangokuura bay, which lies at the uppermost part of the Oshika Peninsula. In this area, new venues including a furniture workshop and guesthouse opened in the wake of the earthquake. The statue of an angel made by Motohiko Odani, which features as Reborn-Art Festival’s key visual this term, is exhibited at a former fish processing factory in a residential area.

Artists

Momonoura・Oginohama Area

There are two permanent exhibits in the fishing village of Momoura, where Momonoura Village, an accommodation and training facility, is located. In Oginohama, where the cloud pavilion right by the Hamasaisai diner welcomes visitors, a white deer sculpture by Kohei Nawa is on display. A cave near Reborn-Art Dining that was dug during World War II also serves as a venue.

Artists

Works from the permanent exhibition
of the past RAFs in Momonoura・Oginohama

Kohei Nawa

White Deer (Oshika)

RAF2017 work

Teppei Kaneuji

Hard Boiled Daydream (Material Ghost / Ishinomaki) #1, #2, #3, #4

RAF2017 work

Naoki Kusumi

Bubble

RAF2019 work

Ayukawa Area

Ayukawa is on the southern edge of the Oshika Peninsula, about an hour’s drive from central Ishinomaki. The seascape overlooking Kinkasan, one of the three holy sites in Oshu, is also a sight worth visiting. The sea off the coast of Kinkasan is one of the world’s three major fishing grounds where the Kuroshio and Oyashio currents collide, and Ayukawa once prospered as a whaling town. In addition to three permanent exhibits, a new artwork is on display at Shima Meguri no Yado Sakai.

Artists

Works from the permanent exhibition
of the past RAFs in Ayukawa

Microcosmos -Melody-

RAF2019 work

Art That Invites Visitors to an Unknown World

Etsuko Watari, Koichi Watari　
(The Watari Museum of Contemporary Art)

Eleven 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 thirty-eight-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.

Etsuko Watari: Director of Watari Museum of Contemporary Art. Born in 1956, Etsuko Watari graduated from the School of Humanities and Social Sciences at Waseda University. She co-established the museum shop On Sundays in 1980, and has been the museum’s curator since 1990. Watari’s books include The Laboratory of Rodchenko’s (Shinchosha), Museum Goods in the World (Heibonsha), and Rudolf Steiner: Blackboard Drawings (Chikuma Shobo). She served as chair of the Executive Committee of Pavilion Tokyo 2021, and organized the “Ripple Across the Water 2021” exhibition.
Koichi Watari: CEO of Watari Museum of Contemporary Art. Born in 1960, Koichi Watari graduated from the School of Social Sciences at Waseda University. He co-established the museum shop On Sundays in 1980, and has been the museum’s curator since 1990. In 1992, Watari became the first Japanese person to work at Documenta 9. In 1995, he served as the Japanese commissioner for the first Johannesburg Biennale. He was chair of the Production Committee of Pavilion Tokyo 2021, and organized the “Ripple Across the Water 2021" exhibition.; Etsuko Watari, Koichi Watari (The Watari Museum of Contemporary Art)

Reborn-Art Festival 2021-22
Second Term
Altruism and Fluidity

［ Period ］

August 20 (SAT) – October 2 (SUN), 2022
*Closed on August 24 (WED),
September 7 (WED), 14 (WED)

［ Venue ］

Ishinomaki City
(Central Ishinomaki,
Memorial Park area, Watanoha),

Oshika Peninsula
(Momonoura-Oginohama, Ayukawa)

in Miyagi Prefecture

［ Viewing Times ］

Ishinomaki City area
10:00 - 17:00 (final admission at 16:30)

Oshika Peninsula area

Weekdays
10:00 - 16:00
(final admission at 15:30)

Saturdays, Sundays,
Public holidays
10:00 - 17:00
(final admission at 16:30)

*Hours may differ depending on the facility and work.

［ Organizers ］

Reborn-Art Festival Executive Committee
ap bank

［ Co-organizers ］

Miyagi Prefecture /
Ishinomaki City /
Shiogama City /
Higashimatsushima City /
Matsushima Town /
Onagawa Town /
Kahoku Shimpo Publishing Co. /
JR East-Sendai

［ Grant ］ The Agency for Cultural Affairs, Government of Japan in the fiscal ［ Special sponsor ］
［ Sponsors ］: EXELCO DIAMOND

［ Supporters ］

Tohoku Broadcasting Co., Ltd. /
Sendai Television Incorporated /
Miyagi Television Broadcasting Co., Ltd. /
HIGASHINIPPON BROADCASTING CO., LTD. /
Sendai FM BROADCASTING, INC.

［ Special cooperation ］

Reborn-Art Festival Ishinomaki Executive Committee

［ Cooperation ］

Ishinomaki Mill, Nippon Paper Industries Co., Ltd.
SEINO TRANSPORTATION CO., LTD.
Ishinomaki Senshu University
HOUEI CONSTRUCTION
FSX, Inc.
Yumeminosato

［ Inquiry ］

Information on this website is valid as of June 22, 2021.
Changes may occur due to the spread of COVID-19.
We would like to ask for your understanding beforehand.
For the latest information, please check this website.