Misuzukaru Shinano

Installation for the « Japan Alps Art Festival 2017 » invited by Art Front Gallery | june 4th – july 30th 2017

Pigments, acrylic binder and aluminum on wall, beam, ceiling and post, various dimensions, 2017

Shinano Omachi is in the heart of the country of Shinano. Human being first installation was conditioned by the possibility of the water to flow through the village, which quenches the beings and nourishes the fields. Still water was a source of destruction, flooding, mudslides, which obliged the search for its always ephemeral control.

Legend says Tatsunoko Tarô, son of the Dragon-God, raised by the villagers of the region and wishing to thank them, has brought peace to the waters of the country. Throughout the city, the sound of water that flows is everywhere, it is today still assimilated to the dragon. Two sources are running: Otoko Mizu, from the Northern Alps, giving boys birth to mothers who drink it. Onna Mizu, originating from Iyari, which giving birth to girls.

I wanted to execute the installation in a place crossed by a man made river. Indeed, in the darkness of the buildings of an ancient kitchen and a house built during the Edo period, I fixed on the walls plows and plowshares figures. Close to the fireplace, the memory of past lives is in the continuity of running water, always similar but never the same. Looking up, a master beam reveals the roughness of the truncated trunk: the body of a dragon that always looks after and whose brilliant shell reflects the legend.

© Mari Minato 2017