Reborn-Art Festival 2019
Details have been announced for “Reborn-Art Festival 2019,” an integrated festival of art, music, and food.
At the “Reborn-Art Festival 2019 Overview Announcement” press conference, executive committee chairman and Ishinomaki Mayor Hiroshi Kameyama, Takeshi Kobayashi, art exhibition area curators Michihiro Shimabuku, Hideki Toyoshima, and Kaoru Arima, Etsuko and Koichi Watari of the Watari Museum of Contemporary Art, Shinichi Nakazawa, and food directors Jerome Waag and Shinichiro Harakawa took the stage to unveil new details ahead of the August opening.
The curators announced the themes and concepts of each area along with the participating artists whose works will be exhibited. A music event to open the 58-day festival will be held on Saturday, August 3 and Sunday, August 4 at the Ishinomaki City Gymnasium; the completed version of the post-rock opera “Kenji of the Fourth Dimension” (whose first act premiered in 2017) will be staged; and advance-exchange tickets for the artwork viewing passport will go on sale — details continue to roll out as the opening approaches.
With Ajishima newly added as an exhibition area, the six districts of downtown Ishinomaki and the Oshika Peninsula will be enriched by curation from contemporary artists who participated in the inaugural edition, weaving multiple exhibitions across the peninsula together with the region’s abundant nature. Expectations are running high for this year’s “Reborn-Art Festival 2019.”
About “Reborn-Art Festival”
The Reborn-Art Festival is a new integrated arts festival where visitors can enjoy “art,” “music,” and “food.” The inaugural edition ran for 51 days beginning Saturday, July 22, 2017, primarily in the Ishinomaki and Oshika districts, staged against a backdrop of rich nature and created together with local residents.
The Ishinomaki and Oshika districts were among the areas hardest hit by the Great East Japan Earthquake. Here, contemporary artists from Japan and abroad visit and create works in dialogue with the community, music events of various styles take place, and renowned chefs gathered from across Japan meet local people and ingredients to serve food that can only be experienced here — a place that generates countless “encounters.”
Through those “encounters,” the festival aims to create various cycles that lead to regional recovery and revitalization.
The second edition in 2019 will run for 58 days from Saturday, August 3 to Sunday, September 29, taking place in the Oshika Peninsula, downtown Ishinomaki, and Matsushima Bay in Miyagi Prefecture, with the addition of Ajishima.
2019 Theme: “The Texture of Life”
The theme of Reborn-Art Festival 2019 is “The Texture of Life.”
The scars left by the unprecedented earthquake caused by nature’s fury are still visible throughout the Tohoku region.
Though one hesitates to simply describe this as <negative>, it is certain that the <positive> that emerged from it has shaped this arts festival, whose keyword is “Reborn-Art = the art of living.”
At the first edition in 2017, people’s feelings and connections were newly created in various ways through art as a medium.
For the coming second edition in 2019, we would like to raise “The Texture of Life” as our theme.
The state of modern society — including a runaway economy — seems to be drifting ever further from the essence of what it means for a person to live.
We hope you will experience works that touch deeply upon our very roots — a “life” that could only be born in Ishinomaki — and the dynamism directed toward a future where a new <positive> can be found there.Executive Committee Chairman, Reborn-Art Festival
[ART]
This year adopts a new multi-curator system.
Ajishima is added as an exhibition area, expanding the scope to a total of six districts.
Curators
Ayukawa Area: Michihiro Shimabuku SHIMABUKU
Oginohama Area: Kohei Nawa KOHEI NAWA
Kozumi Area: Hideki Toyoshima HIDEKI TOYOSHIMA
Downtown Area: Kaoru Arima KAORU ARIMA
Ajishima Area: Etsuko & Koichi Watari ETSUKO・KOICHI WATARI
Downtown Area: Shinichi Nakazawa SHINICHI NAKAZAWA
Momonoura Area: Takeshi Kobayashi TAKESHI KOBAYASHI
The lineup of participating artists is also stacked with big names such as Yayoi Kusama and Zai Kuning.
Participating Artists
Gozo Yoshimasu
Ichiko Aoba
Michihiro Shimabuku
Hajime Imamura
Kyoko Murase
Kohei Nawa
Daizaburo Sakamoto + Yuko Okubo
Nao Tsuda
Yumiko Horiba
Mika Ozawa
Toshinao Aoki
Akio Tanaka
Yamagata Geijutsu Kaiwai
Ishinomaki Kiwamarisou
ART DRUG CENTER
Tadanobu Asano
Zon Ito + Ryoko Aoki
Marina Komiya
Lois Weinberger
Zai Kuning
Yayoi Kusama
Sebastian Masuda
Parco Kinoshita
and more!
[MUSIC]
It has been announced that a music event to open the 58-day festival will be held on Saturday, August 3 and Sunday, August 4 at the Ishinomaki City Gymnasium.
The event promises a true musical experience: masterpieces from various eras written in Japanese will be reinterpreted as artistic originals and visualized alongside imagery.
The 2017 edition was a lavish music festival held in collaboration with ap bank fes.
The 2019 edition will be held in a gymnasium — how it will unfold is something to look forward to!
Overview
Dates: Saturday, August 3 & Sunday, August 4, 2019 Venue: Ishinomaki City Gymnasium (3-1-63 Izumi-cho, Ishinomaki, Miyagi Prefecture)
*Details on performing artists, ticket sales, and more will be announced at a later date.
[FOOD]
“Food,” one of the pleasures of the festival, is not to be missed.
The ingredients and food culture of Ishinomaki and the Oshika Peninsula will be excavated and expressed together with producers and talented chefs from within and outside the prefecture.
The “Ishinomaki Food Adventure” is an experiential tour that opens up the five senses as a prelude to the food experience. It is a food adventure themed around local ingredients and local nature. Participants will open their senses through their own bodies, discovering and learning as they go.
Reborn-Art DINING ©Reborn-Art Festival
For the food experience, guest chefs who have joined the tours will serve dishes at the restaurant that reflect their encounters with the ingredients. Learnings and feelings from each tour will be documented using classrooms at Oginohama Elementary School. Events using the schoolyard are also being planned.
Information is expected to be updated continuously as the opening approaches — worth keeping an eye on!
Official site here.
Overview
“Reborn-Art Festival 2019”
Dates: Saturday, August 3 – Sunday, September 29, 2019 <58 days>
Venues: Oshika Peninsula, Ajishima, downtown Ishinomaki, Matsushima Bay (Ishinomaki, Shiogama, Higashimatsushima, Matsushima, Onagawa)
*Closed on Wednesdays (planned) <Excluding Wednesday, August 14 and event days. Details TBA> *Ajishima area opens from Tuesday, August 20
Organizers: Reborn-Art Festival Executive Committee, ap bank
Co-organizers: Miyagi Prefecture, Ishinomaki, Shiogama, Higashimatsushima, Matsushima, Onagawa, The Kahoku Shimpo, JR East Sendai Branch, Yahoo Japan Corporation
FY2018 Agency for Cultural Affairs International Cultural Arts Dissemination Hub Development Project
Sponsors (in Japanese syllabary order): Kinoshita Group, Kirin Holdings, Sumitomo Forestry, TSUTAYA, T Point Japan, Kankyo Station
Partner Projects (in Japanese syllabary order): Aichi Triennale 2019, Sanriku Disaster Recovery Project 2019, Setouchi Triennale 2019
