Forest Festival of the Arts Okayama Kicks Off; Stunning International Exhibits on Display

By Seiki Hamabata / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writer

20:00 JST, September 29, 2024

TSUYAMA/NIIMI, Okayama — Forest Festival of the Arts Okayama began in 12 cities, towns and villages across northern Okayama Prefecture on Saturday.

It is the first time the festival has been held.

A diverse array of artwork created by 43 artists from 12 countries and regions is on display, attracting eager visitors from inside and outside the prefecture.

The opening ceremony was held at the nationally renowned Shurakuen Garden in Tsuyama in front of about 100 attendees, including those involved in the festival. The festival’s art director Yuko Hasegawa, director of the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, performed the ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the start of the event.

“With the cooperation of the locals and the artists, we have created exhibits that bring out the beauty of each location. I hope visitors discover something new and fall in love with both the places and themselves,” Hasegawa said in an interview with the press.

One of the exhibits is Dreams of the Beyond in the Abyss, an immersive art experience displayed at Makido Cave, a limestone cave in Niimi. It was created by photographer and filmmaker Mika Ninagawa and her creative team. Visitors that enter the cave are greeted by a space illuminated in blue. A narrow path ahead is bathed in red light, leading to a pond adorned with around 1,000 artificial spider lilies. In the silence, the sound of droplets falling adds to the cave’s mysterious atmosphere.

The festival runs until Nov. 24.