SUZU 2017: Oku-Noto Triennale

Suzu, Ishikawa, Japan
03/09/2017 - 22/10/2017

SUZU 2017: Oku-Noto Triennale is an unprecedented festival in which participating artists can rediscover the charm of Noto Peninsula in the northern coast of Japan, its patterns of life and its people, while engaging locals and supporters from elsewhere. Artworks installed across the region, from the sotoura to the uchiura, not only show a new way to explore the Oku-Noto cape, but also suggest future directions for the oyashio-culture, including a relationship between the Japanese archipelago and the continent.

Eko created a site-specific work in the city of Suzu, now mainly populated by elders and left behind by the young generation who migrated to bigger cities in Japan. He responded to an abandoned train station called Takojima Station with murals, and drawings. The mural memorialized the victims who died whilst building the railway with a sculptural installation reminiscent of floral offerings in Javanese graves. Emphasizing memories and inviting people to remember the history of this particular station, Eko also presented interviews with older inhabitants sharing their stories from the prosperous times of Suzu city, questioning the situation behind the city’s current desolation. Along this, he presents two video works tracing the history of an abandoned railway built in West Java under the Japanese occupation by Indonesian forced laborers (romusha). One video featured aerial footage following the traces of the railway line and another featured oral histories of survivors, family members and community organizations.

Photo Courtesy of Oku-Noto Triennale. Photo by Keizo Kioku