News

The “Spirit of North” project has been held 14 times until 2021.
The project has been held on a large scale, including museums in Japan and Finland, multiple warehouses in the Aizu region, and simultaneous events in Japan and Scotland.
From now on, we will not only hold large scale events, but will also emphasize the importance of a small number of participants facing each other in-depth, interacting with people in the host region, and experiencing the local sensitivities.

As a realization of this, Vol. 15 in 2025 will aim for a deep understanding and exchange between three women artists who live far away from each other on the globe.

Artist/
Elisa Pritzker: Born in Argentina,  lives in New York
Helena Junttila: Born and lives in Finland
Yoshiko Maruyama: Born in Fukushima,  lives in Tokyo

 

To get to know each other, we had the first Zoom conversation with these three of us.We met across a huge time difference: 9:00 am in New York/16:00 pm in Sodankylä, Finland/ 22:00 pm in Tokyo.

What have these three women artists, who have had life experiences beyond their 60th birthday, been thinking and expressing in three different places on earth?
They also are aware of the existence of three indigenous peoples: the Emishi of Japan’s Tohoku region, the Sami of Lapland in northern Finland, and the Selk’nam of Patagonia in southern Argentina. What can we see in respecting their culture and spirituality?
The three of us will create a theme for the event through dialogue over time.

In 2025, we will hold a residency and exchange event in Aizu, and present the results in an exhibition in Tokyo.

2023.07.29