Terrace Paddy Filed, Seto Inland Sea, and Teshima Art Museum in one frame.

Teshima : Reborn Island

<This is a part of my journey to Setouchi Art Triennale 2016, held in Seto Inland Sea Islands located at the south west of Japan.>

We were so excited to visit Teshima Island since it once appeared on our lecture (Geo-environmental Engineering).

Teshima Island used to be called as Gomi No Shima (ゴミの島), means Island of Trashes in Japanese because it used to be a dump site of irresponsible factory. The ground soil was contaminated so the citizen could no longer live comfortably.

After years of remediation and rehabilitation, the citizen and local government work hard to turn back Teshima’s natural beauty. Adding to that, some artists and architects installed art spaces (including holds the Setouchi Art Festival) to attract other people so they can experience The Reborn Teshima Island.

We rent a bike from the Teshima Port to visit the Teshima Art Museum. It took such an effort to ride the bike uphill in a summer afternoon but the view and experience after that are all worth it.

In The Teshima Art Museum area, there are two main space. The left one is Shop and Cafe space and the right one is the Art Space.

The space with the hole is the art space where we couldn’t take any kinds of recording. We also need to keep quiet and were refrain from using a pen. We went inside it with taking our shoes off and I was surprised because it was actually the artwork.

The art space was somewhat surreal and magnificent. I think I cannot express it well in words so it is something you need to experience it yourself.

The tile of the art space was like a water-proof marble and there was water coming from little holes at the ground. It is said it was from a fountain in the Island. The water drops danced to anywhere it wants and we should be careful not to touch it cause it’s part of the artwork.

At first, I was kind of sad that we couldn’t take any kinds of recording, but after experiencing it myself I understand why. It is the simplest way to enjoy it and focus on it. The feeling is something you cannot explain, you should keep it yourself, and you should make every moment count. Not caring on how good you took your picture was, or how many likes will you got from posting it.

After spending some times, we decided to have lunch at the museum’s cafe and shop which pretty much look like the art space model. And we can take photos! (lol)

After a while, we headed to other art installation and exhibition. It was fun, overwhelming, and something that I believe I cannot experience it anywhere else. Thank you for being born again, Teshima.

Exhibition from French Artist; Christian Boltanski. We entered a dark corridor full of mirror only enlighted with one light bulb blinking according to a very loud hearbeat sound . That was a recording of different people’s heartbeats from around the world

My friend recorded one and we lsitened to it while it is exhibited.