In Dogo, in my hometown, Matsuyama, Ehime, Japan, the oldest hot spring ‘Dogo Onsen‘ had become the symbol of the centre of contemporary art throughout a year last year. The art festival ‘Dogo Onsenart 2014‘ was held to celebrate 120th anniversary of this valuable building of Dogo Onsen Honkan (the main building). Around 30 artists exhibited their artworks including installation, media, projection and photography works. Unfortunately I could visit only Hunaya and appreciate works and the installation created by Yuki Hayama, and the sculpture created by Lilian Bourgeat on the wall of Tsubaki-no-yu in the end of December, but I am sure other events and artworks fascinated many visitors.
Yuki Hayama’s installation was presented as a part of the project called ‘Hotel Horizontal’, which consisted of installation artworks in nine rooms of nine hotels in Dogo. Hayama’s work was displayed in Hunaya. Hayama is famous for his detailed porcelain paintings. The theme of his installation was “藍”(deep blue / indigo blue), and so the colour of deep blue was used to express the aesthetic quality of the transformation of space, from a typical room into a world of blue. On the wall and the shoji (sliding doors), printed enlarged pictures of his paintings were pasted. I loved the contrast between the activeness of paintings and flatness of colours and textures of ceiling and floor (tatami). As the name of the hotel is ‘Hunaya'(‘huna’ means a crucian carp), Hayama drew huna on a porcelain on the centre of a table. This may have been the focal point of the installation that it could be the shape of the world which Hayama would like to express.
‘Fabula – 寓話 – ‘ was the artwork in Onsenart Collection created by Lilian Bourgeat. This sculpture tells the story of the legend of herons in Dogo. This artwork is set on the wall therefore the audience is like looking it down from the sky, experiencing in the world of the tale from third person’s point of view.
This time I did not have an opportunity to visit Dogo at night so I missed seeing many interesting artworks. I am glad that art livened up my hometown.
Saran Kim | Blog 