AMABIKI 2011 In the midst of winter


photograph SAITO Sadamu

Sakuragawa City in Ibaraki prefecture, which is an expanse of rural scenery, is also one of Japan's leading sources of stone with a flourishing stone industry. In 1996, a number of stone sculptors with workshops in the area began "Amabiki Village and Sculpture". The participating artists ran the event themselves, with the cooperation of local people, and by now the sculpture exhibition has a history of 15 years. Many art events have been staged in recent years, to stimulate the region, and the diligent efforts of the artists have gradually won people's understanding. The exhibition is also a rare example of such an effort leading to the beginnings of community stimulus, and it offers many hints on the relationship between society and the pure, expressive efforts of the sculptors.
In this, the eighth exhibition, 42 participating artists will place their works, which use diverse materials and forms of expression, in the "satoyama" village hillsides and hamlets between the start of the year in January to the beginnings of spring in March.
Until now, the exhibitions have mainly taken place in the milder seasons of spring and fall, but this time we chose to brave the harsh cold of winter in an exhibition entitled "In the midst of winter". As the trees lose their leaves, the ridge lines of the landscape are starkly exposed, revealing a different kind of beauty from spring and fall. What kinds of places will the 42 artworks settle into, amid the attenuated colors and the harshly chilled air, and what kinds of scenery will they create?
Visitors will feel the air of the season and move around in an orienteering style, encountering scattered clusters of works. As they do so, they will also experience the beauty of Japan's "satoyama" hillsides, and the local industries and people's lives that go on there. Those things have always made the exhibition richer and more vivid.
The artists called to Amabiki Village have been searching for expression in the intersection between the natural life of the "satoyama" and the social environment of the area. Regardless of age and background, they are stimulated by each other's work, turning the exhibition into a workshop in which they polish themselves. I believe "Amabiki Village and Sculpture" will go on making steady progress, like marking a row of footprints over this wintry terrain.

March 2011
Amabiki 2011, Executive Committee