SW D3 Matsuyama and Matsudai art

Route : Tokamachi - Shikawatari - Matsunoyama - Matsudai
Bicycle: 43 km
Train: 15 km
Total ascent: 739 m
Average speed: 13,7 km/h
Riding time: 3:10 h
Weather: sunny and getting hit again, 32C

Yesterday at the Monet museum I asked the friendly lady at the reception for suggestions of art work to see plus I had seen a picture of a old house from which an enormous bubble emerges which I found curious. 

Today I didn’t start that early and while a few hours extra sleep where nice it also meant that I was still out there when it really got hot. although truth be told, while it is hot, it isn’t unbearably hot, just about bearable. When I looked at the map yesterday to plan the ride,  I saw a a street on the other side of the valley, which seemed to have potentially less traffic than the road on this side. So I decided to take it, and it was great, part of it was actually kind of closed. Maybe not really closed but definitely again the road that isn’t been transited by anyone. Luckily, I also did not run into a bear. 

From Shikawatashi I started uphill, but soon found the first artwork.

Actually, only the first of these shows an artwork. And only a small piece of that picture is a artwork. Mostly it is a Tepco installation for Hydro power. And frankly speaking, the industrial installation was much more interesting than the art. The second picture isn’t art at all. It is a damn against landslides and avalanches. But in the context of the art triennial anything can seem art. While some of the art doesn’t seem right at all.

I continued further uphill and found three other small exhibition, places within close proximity. I have the impression that except the two purpose built, museums in Tokamachi and Matsudai, anll exhibitions are either in abandoned school buildings, or abandoned houses.And abandoned school houses are very abundant. In general in Japan, and in this area that is very rural, and not well-connected even more so. In one of the buildings, there was a long explanation about the history of the school building, it started as a small school at the end of the 19th century, then grew and grew before reaching its peak shortly after the second world war. From there, it was a continuous decline and probably from the 90s onwards bottomless fall. Number of students diminishing so far that school got combined and closed. I read somewhere recently studied by the Japanese government that says that about 40% of all Japanese municipalities will disappear. 

The other sort of venues are abandoned houses, of which there is no lack in the countryside in Japan. This artwork here with a web of strings through the entire building kind of captured this feeling of loss. 

I’m not sure, but I suspect that some of these houses will only host this one installation, will not survive until the next annual, and no one will remove the installation. This house here already in Matsudai, at the end of my ride today, felt like a capitalist nightmare. The entire house covered in fake gold, Mahjong tiles, game automat, and more gold.Removing all the decoration to reuse this building for something else would seem a total waste of time, knowing how many abandoned buildings there are in this area and in general in Japan.

But back to the house with the bubble. Curiously called China house.I have no idea why it has absolutely no obvious connection with China. This is how the bubble from the inside looks.

Close by there was another abundance school now used as an exhibition facility. Unfortunately, the school was abundant before it got installed air-conditioning so it was actually quite hot inside.

There was a bath inside, but not off refreshing water, but instead of wooden balls. Much harder to get out than the IKEA balls.

I have been recommended another Place in the area, called “the teachers house”, But by the time I had finished with the exhibition and the schoolhouse, I felt quite hot and decided to just ride downhill to Matsudai. The museum there looks a little bit like a spaceship that landed in the middle of rice paddies. In the coffee, I had a cold drink and a small piece of cake, but in an art project even that can look like art.

And thanks to the advancements in AI technology, I was even able to raise my foot that was standing in the picture and disturbing the artistic vibe.

But it was also nice landscape today…

 

… some even without any art in it.

Even at this museum, I was still feeling relatively hot and why it was getting a bit more bearable outside. I also saw that there’s a very long tunnel between Matsudai and Tokamachi, and I have no idea if it is nice to ride with a bike or not. So I gave into the temptation and took the train back to Tokamachi and then only cycled back the last few kilometers to my ryokan.