FAIR: Fuwari no Mori International Artist in Residence
- Host organization
Organization Fuwari no Mori (Fuwari Art Forest Project)
- Address
1093 Ohtake, Narita city, Chiba 286-0841
- Website
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Overview
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AIR Program information
| Objective | -Create Narita City’s first contemporary art project “Fuwari Art Forest Project”; -Initiate FAIR, the first international artist-in-residence program in the international city of Narita to establish an artist-led Asian art hub in Narita, Japan, with the international airport as its core (led by artists)； -Invigorate artist-in-residence movements in Japan by forming connections with other artist-in-residence programs based in domestic cities networked by flights departing from/arriving at Narita International Airport (for example, by providing a place for people working in artist-in-residence programs in those cities to come together and disseminate information of their activities to the world); -Revitalize the rapidly depopulating area around the airport as a forest of art by implementing the artist-led plan of building a new creative city through art based in Narita; -Open a contemporary art gallery (Gallery FAIR) in the underpopulated area to prevent the area from further hollowing out by using regional-revitalization measures based on the geographical advantages of the area located near the international airport; Develop Narita City into a tourist destination by launching the city’s first artist-led contemporary art project and dotting the vast area of rich nature with contemporary artworks to produce a good flow of tourists from the airport to the city, in order to address challenges the city faces, including that of airport passengers just passing by the city, and no museum located there; -Create an “art field” in the forest area surrounding the airport, where many people can come to stay, instead of going elsewhere directly from the airport; -Establish a place for artists working abroad to come together and collaborate with each other; -Originate Asia’s largest “art airport” based on the unprecedented concept of an “airport combined with a forest of art”; -Revitalize the local community in Narita to enable it to contribute to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as a leading city of culture and arts, and take advantage of the charms of the area and share new information about the reborn area with the world; -Change the public image of Narita and Narita International Airport, devastated and disordered by the Great East Japan Earthquake; -Foster collaboration between artists and children, and enrich the local community by making the field of art education more open, with the aim of raising Narita as a place that produces a large number of future world-class artists; -Hold the Airport City International Art Festival “Fuwari no Mori ART PARADE” -Operate and manage Artist in Town, Sakae Museum of Memories -Organize the area art program, Artist in School -Hold an artist-led large-scale exhibition, the Fuwari Art Forest International Art Festival, in Narita. |
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| Organization activities | -Administration of an artist-in-residence program -Organization of temporary exhibitions in the gallery space -Direction of exhibitions in cooperation with domestic and overseas art projects -Planning, administration, and implementation of area art programs -Management of the art café “Toast and Honey” -Planning, production, and administration of the Fuwari Art Forest International Art Festival -Installation and organization of temporary exhibitions at Narita International Airport -Collaboration with businesses, and design creation |
| Founded in | 2014 |
| Background | In 2013, the artist Yusuke Shimura, moving his studio and artistic activity base from Tokyo and abroad to Narita, his birthplace, launched the Fuwari Art Forest Project based in the forest around Narita International Airport, in order to raise the vast area of forest as a home for contemporary art. This project aims to create an airport-linked artist village where visitors can experience the latest works of contemporary art, by making the best use of the large stretch of forest surrounding Narita International Airport as a foothold of artists for creation, with the airport serving as a base for global communication of arts and culture. The artist-in-residence program FAIR / Narita was initiated as the core program of the Fuwari Art Forest Project with the aim of raising the area around the airport as an “art forest,” where artists from Japan and abroad can come together, engage in dialogue and collaborate with each other, and exhibit their latest works. As the first contemporary art project in the international city of Narita, the Fuwari Art Forest Project along with FAIR / Narita is aimed at being an artist-led world-class “art hub” by producing a good flow of visitors from the airport to Narita, which many airport passengers once simply passed by. In the flow, you can find artists staying there to engage in creation, as well as tourists coming there to experience the latest works of contemporary art. The project, established as a land art project by the project director and artist Yusuke Shimura, also contributes to the revitalization of the rapidly depopulating and underpopulated forest area around the airport by dotting the hollowing area with artworks to create an “art field,” under the concept that the existence of “art” in the international creative city of “Narita” that Shimura is newly creating should be embodied with the combination of art, the environment, architecture, the local community, and other elements. Shimura as an artist is taking the initiative in designing Narita City as a new international creative city. ●Main location In 2013, the project started with the opening of its main location (Fuwari no Mori, meaning “Fuwari Art Forest”) in the Shimousa-Manzaki area just two stations away from Narita International Airport. As part of the project, the renovation of vacant buildings, including old private houses, by Shimura for use as a gallery, an art café, and an art hotel began in the same year. In 2014, the artist-in-residence program was launched, and a gallery was opened. A stylishly designed spa facility featuring black-colored natural hot spring water, located in this area and the nearest of this kind to Narita International Airport, also started supporting the artist-in-residence program and the artists participating in it. Local companies supporting the project in administration, the local community cooperating in the revitalization of the underpopulated area through the project, and artists creating artworks there all collaborate with each other in enabling the forest surrounding Narita International Airport to evolve into a forest of contemporary art. Yusuke Shimura opened his studio in Narita under this new regime, where you will surely find novelty as well as fine views of the surrounding countryside. Rei Sato (Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd.) was invited to participate in the FAIR / NARITA artist-in-residence program in 2014. Through this artist-in-residence program, internationally renowned artists contribute to the revitalization of the underpopulated area and the establishment of an artist village as a foothold for artistic creation. ● Program name, and details of the program and the gallery The program was named “Fuwari Art Forest International Artist-in-Residence” (acronym: FAIR) after Fuwari, the hero of dreams and hope in the form of a white rabbit wearing a red cape, depicted by Yusuke Shimura in his drawings. This artist-in-residence program was initiated as one that takes advantage of Narita as a city with an international airport, that is, bringing harmony between the global and the local, through creative activities by artists staying or living there selected according to the criterion that participating artists should be those who are actually working in the international art field or are expected to do remarkable work in the international art field in the future. Contemporary artists are playing important roles in the creation of a new international creative city of Narita based on the combination of the global and the local, and the revitalization of the local community through such measures as turning a closed elementary school into a museum of memories. In 2014, a studio and a gallery were opened by renovating vacant buildings. The contemporary art gallery, named “Gallery FAIR” and attached to a residential space in Fuwari Art Forest, is operated in combination with the FAIR program, and exhibits artworks based on the concepts of “fair” in its various meanings, and “dreams” to be visualized. The word “fair” has multiple meanings, including “exhibition,” as well as “without discrimination,” “fine,” and “promising.” Expressing the significance of the creation of the future (through an artist-run gallery) in its name “FAIR,” the gallery, run by artists, holds one-person exhibitions of “promising” artists, as the concept implies. The opening of its first exhibition, “Wanderlust Days” by Yusuke Shimura and Rei Sato (Kaikai Kiki Co., Ltd.), saw the participation of nearly 100 people, despite the gallery being located in an underpopulated area. Such exchange programs suggest the gallery’s great possibility of contributing to the revitalization of the local community as a contact point between the local community, the metropolis, and the rest of the world. This artist-in-residence program and its gallery are working as Japan’s most rapidly responding artist-run program and space to collaborate in art exhibitions with artist-run spaces mushrooming abroad today, other new artist-in-residence programs, overseas museums and galleries, and artists, emphasizing its function of becoming linked to the world in a “flat” (fair) manner, just as the airport does. Launched against the background of the Great East Japan Earthquake aftermath and the closing of elementary schools around the airport one after another, the Fuwari Art Forest Project as the first contemporary art project in Narita also focuses on pioneering a hopeful future by returning us to our disappearing roots through its artist-in-residence program. Operated with the aim of being a land artwork functioning as an international art hub and artist village, the project holds many events including artists’ talks and open studios, in order to encourage people and artists participating in the artist-in-residence program to develop close relationships with each other. A decision was made to hold the Fuwari no Mori Art Parade in 2020. This “airport city international art festival” will be the first art festival to be held at Narita Airport, the airport area and in the woods surrounding the airport. The festival will feature works by Japanese and international artists participating in the artist-in-residence program FAIR, as well as works by invited artists. |
| Location / Environment | This project, based in Narita City, Chiba Prefecture, boasts a large stretch of forest surrounding Narita International Airport as its foothold for artistic creation, along with the international airport as its base for global communication of arts and culture. The main project location is just two stations away from Narita International Airport, and enjoys direct rail (JR) access from Tokyo. This area, accessible to many passengers departing from/arriving at the international airport, is home to the Fuwari Art Forest Project, the first contemporary art project in the international city of Narita, as well as Yamato no Yu, a natural spa with black water, a rare wooden station building, and satoyama forest, an ideal place for rambling in and experiencing the rich nature of Japan. The stylishly designed spa facility Yamato no Yu will give you a panoramic view of fields and paddies around Narita. |
| Contact | 1093 Ohtake, Narita city, Chiba 286-0841 Japan TEL：0476-55-3630 E-mail：fairnarita(at)gmail.com Facebookhttp://www.fuwarinomoriart.jp Twitterhttps://twitter.com/fairfuwari Instagramhttps://www.instagram.com/fuwari_no_mori/ |
Facility information
Studio informationAvailable
3 studios
AccommodationsAvailable
"ARTSTAY maison FUWARI" and 4 rooms
Presentation spaceAvailable
*Gallery FAIR, a space at a terminal in Narita International Airport, SAKANAO139 Museum of Memories (school building)
*Art Cafe "Toast and Honey"
Location
Access from Narita International Airport
-By train:Two stations from JR & Keisei Airport Terminal 2 Station
[JR & Keisei Narita Airport Station (Terminal 1) >>] JR & Keisei Airport Terminal 2 Station >> JR Narita Station >> JR Shimousa-Manzaki Station on the Narita Line (one station away from Narita Station)
* If you use the Keisei Line from the airport, change trains at Narita Station for the JR Line.
Access from the heart of Tokyo
-Direct rail access from Tokyo
60 minutes from JR Ueno Station on trains going straight through the Joban Line to Narita
(Or take the JR Joban Line or the Tokyo Metro Chiyoda Line running onto the Joban Line to Abiko Station, and change at that station for the JR Narita Line bound for Narita.)
-3 minutes on foot from JR Shimousa-Manzaki Station
Open calls
Currently there is no program available for application.