About MiSHŌ
Fujino (population of 8000 residents) is known as an art village and one of the Transition Movement towns in Japan. With history as an artists’ colony where artists evacuated during the Second World War, Fujino has been the site of several art projects and residencies since the 1990s.
It is a decentralized satoyama*, consisting of dozens of villages nestled in the valleys overlooked by the Tanzawa Mountains, surrounded by rich forests and streams.
Misho (実生) is named after a Japanese word for “seedling.”
Just as people have maintained the vitality of forests by improving the environment and taken care of satoyama as areas that sustain their daily lives, our project uses this word with the intention to cultivate the ground for co-creation where artists and local people can interact and spontaneously generate new ideas and creative solutions. By connecting these activities and the network of creative people to the world, we aim to make the area a global hub for the regeneration of natural and cultural ecosystems.
Currently, we are running a series of pilot residency programs in collaboration with the Lithuanian Embassy in Japan. While the residency is based in temporary settings, we are seeking a permanent space to develop collaboratively with the local community and MiSHŌ residents.
We envision MiSHŌ as a space that welcomes everyone for educational and cultural events, spontaneous happenings and organized community activities.
It is a self-directed and self-funded residency. Open to practitioners of diverse, boundary-crossing fields, participants can benefit from the connections to a local community actively engaged in creative and sustainable practices, and an environment rich in nature. MiSHŌ will offer support to residents in the achievement of their goals during the residency.
Our future hope is to develop an artist exchange program for local Fujino artists that will develop into wider ranging opportunities/ partnerships within Japan and with international artists and likeminded residencies.
MiSHŌ is run by Kohei Hashimoto and Vika Množina Hashimoto.
* Combining the words sato (village) and yama (mountain), satoyama are areas located in areas between mountain foothills and arable flat land. They have been developed by villages and communities through centuries of small-scale agricultural and forestry use.
戦時中この地に疎開してきた芸術家による芸術都市構想をはじめ、80年代以降の様々なアートプロジェクトやレジデンスプログラムを市民主導で行ってきた豊かな文化的土壌、そして、トランジションタウンをはじめとした市民活動やオルタナティブ教育、森の再生活動などを全国に先駆け行ってきた寛容な地域性を背景に、私たちは、アートとエコロジーが交わる現代の視点から、地域内外のクリエーターによる共創を支援するレジデンス・プログラムやコミュニティ・アート・プロジェクトを行っていきます。
種子から発芽して育った幼植物を意味する「実生」。
この言葉を掲げた私たちのプロジェクトでは、里山に人が関わり環境を整えることで森の生命力を生活に活かしてきたように、アーティストと地域の人々が交流することで、新たなアイディアや創造的なソリューションの自発的な芽生えを支える文化的土壌を耕していきます。
そして、この場から生まれる有機的でクリエイティブな活動や人のネットワークを世界へとつなげるハブとなることで、この地域から自然と文化のエコシステムの再生を促していくことを目指します。
当団体初となる今回のレジデンス・プログラムは、駐日リトアニア共和国大使館と連携したパイロット事業です。地域の協力を得て地域内の遊休施設等を活用した海外アーティストの滞在制作と地域の魅力を再発見するコミュニティ・プログラムを実施します。
今後は、地域や各機関との連携を強めながら複数のパイロット事業を継続的に行い、より恒久的な文化交流拠点としてのレジデンス施設の設立に向け、地域コミュニティとレジデント・アーティストと共に活動を展開していきます。