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Art/Photography

Young talent from Fujisawa: The past and future of FAS

藤沢から発信する若い才能 FAS(エファース)のこれまでとこれから

Fujisawa City Art Space (FAS) opened in 2015 in a commercial facility at the north exit of Tsujido Station. The only public art space in Fujisawa City other than the citizen gallery, the museum is a rare facility in Japan as it has exhibition rooms, workshop rooms, and a permanent residence room where artists can stay and create. We spoke to Satoko Sugimoto and Sanae Takegami, art specialists at the museum, about the potential hidden in Fujisawa City, which has declared itself a cultural city.

Interview&Text: Mana Saito

An “art scene” has appeared in a town where there was no art museum.

-I heard that FAS was based on sister cities in the United States.

Sugimoto : When the current mayor, Tsuneo Suzuki, went on a tour to our sister city, Miami Beach, he visited a local art center and there was an artist working there. Originally, Fujisawa City did not have an art gallery or museum, so we wanted to create a facility in Fujisawa City where we could interact with young artists like this, so we decided to create an art facility with residence rooms as one of the concepts. I decided to make it. I think it's a special place that you won't find anywhere else, with the exhibition room and the resident production studio side by side. The three pillars are open studios, exhibitions, and events in the workshop room.

-Has there been any movement to create a contemporary art facility for some time?

Sugimoto : I think the first time that Fujisawa City began to deal with modern art in earnest was in 2014, when we featured young artists in a project called the ``Fujisawa City 30 Days Art Museum,'' which was held every year at the Civic Gallery. Up until then, I had been dealing with famous deceased writers and architects with ties to Fujisawa, but this time I decided to introduce works inspired by the ``Enoshima Ukiyo-e'' owned by Fujisawa City to young artists with ties to Fujisawa. It was an experiment in which seven artists created and exhibited. I think this exhibition was also one of the triggers.

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Kosuke Yoneyama《Enoshima map (2014)》2014

I also grew up in Fujisawa since I was a child, and there weren't many places to see or show art in the city. There are several galleries, but I haven't had the chance to see large-scale works like those seen in large museums, so everyone was happy to be able to see installations and three-dimensional works that take up large spaces. I'm giving it to you.

-How did you choose the location in front of Tsujido Station?

Sugimoto : Even within Fujisawa, Imatsujido in particular is a town in the process of rapid development. Originally, there were no cultural and artistic facilities in the Tsujido area, but it becomes important when a new art gallery or museum is built. However, I think it was thought that it would be more likely to be realized if it was built inside an existing office building that was newly built in Tsujido, which was being reborn.

—Since it was located in an office building, were there any special improvements you had to make?

Sugimoto : By having artists work in residence, we get to see each other every day, and there are many artists who have experience of residencies in various places and think that they must be able to exhibit their work in any place, so we exhibit it. I've never had that much trouble.

As a base for transmitting information to the outside world

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Satoshi Uchiyama《to turn back》2015

-What do you consider important when planning exhibitions and selecting artists?

Sugimoto : Last year, a total of 17 artists exhibited, and all of them are young artists with some connection to Fujisawa. Since this is our first year, and we are also aiming to foster and support young artists, we are trying to have as many young artists as possible to use the space and provide opportunities for interaction and exchange of ideas. When I looked into it, I found that there are a lot of young artists who are connected to Fujisawa, and I don't think I would have been able to see them without this place. My colleagues who work at other art institutions have also told me that it has been difficult to research young artists from Fujisawa and Kanagawa prefectures, so it was great to have a place where I could discover one from the Shonan area.

I also want local artists to not just stop at FAS, but to take off as a hub, and use this as an opportunity to connect with the outside world. Until now, there was no such place, so it seems that Fujisawa's artists often traveled outside the city themselves. We also hope that it will become a place like a port where you can go out and come back.

A public exhibition is scheduled to begin this year, and it is not limited to Fujisawa City, but people from overseas can apply as long as they live in Japan. I am looking forward to the beginning of exchanges between various cultures.

The city of Fujisawa is rich in industry and has a variety of companies, so we are thinking about building connections. This year's open call for proposals included a project in collaboration with 8Hotel, a hotel in the city, and among the four selected candidates, the 8Hotel Award winner will create a work in ``8DAYS A WEEK'', a project to renovate 8Hotel's guest rooms with art. You can create and present your work.

Also, the Fujisawa Ukiyo-e Museum, which will display ukiyo-e from the Fujisawa City collection and materials related to local history, is scheduled to open in July on the 7th floor directly above, and we will be collaborating with them. It's a schedule.

Communication between citizens and artists

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Mariko Kase's production scene

-What kind of feedback have you received so far about the residence rooms?

Sugimoto : Many of the visitors are local residents, but it is also a great opportunity for people who have never encountered art before to be able to see artists working for the first time up close. People have told me that this is very interesting and interesting. However, some people are worried that it may be a hindrance. It seems that even the writers sometimes feel like they have to talk to people when they come in, but the customers are also concerned about them, so they sometimes find it hard to concentrate or have to talk all the time. That's not the case, and it seems to be progressing surprisingly well.

-It's a compromise.

Sugimoto : High school students often come to visit us, and we ask the artists directly if they're thinking about going to art school or what they should do, and we give them really solid advice. People who create their own works as a hobby come to the open studio more and more and ask questions.

-You may feel reluctant to work on a clean white floor...

Sugimoto : There are also types of artists who really care and types who don't (lol). There are only two of us now, so it's pretty clean, but last time there were four people staying, so it was a mess.
At first, I think it was difficult to use because it was too clean, but little by little traces of the past remain, so it may become easier to use. It depends on the production style, but there are fewer walls than I expected, so I think we need to think about improving the facilities in areas that are difficult, such as when creating large paintings.

-Are there any improvements you have made to your operations?

Sugimoto : We didn't really divide the space, so when there were four people crammed together and one person was scattering powder while sculpting, we all discussed how to divide the space. About six months ago, we all decided to meet once every two months to avoid any misunderstandings and complications.

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Satomi Uchida production scene

Memorable seaside scenery

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Shunpei Minagawa《Drifting House》2016

-Are there any works that were created because of this space?

Sugimoto : In the previous installment of ``Finding/Finding Again,'' Shunpei Minagawa, who lives in Nikko, traveled back and forth to his parents' home in Fujisawa to create the piece, and in the work ``Drifting House,'' he worked in Nikko. They brought in scrap wood and assembled it here. It seems that he created a landscape with something like a shack, which was often seen in Tsujido when he was small. It may seem unusual to those who recently moved to Tsujido, but to me, he said, this is one of the nostalgic views of Fujisawa.

Also, Naoya Ishikawa lives in Enoshima, so he used familiar things as motifs. In his workshop, ``Just a stone turned into jewelry!?'', participants were asked to polish stones they found in Enoshima and fragments of his own carvings. At the exhibition to present the results of my stay, stones that had been polished by the sea and stones that had been polished by the workshop participants were displayed side by side.

Satomi Uchida lives in Yokosuka, but during her stay there she could see Mt. Fuji and was close to the sea, so she was very conscious of the surroundings and reflected them in her work.

If you think about it that way, perhaps everyone is a little more conscious of seascapes after all. In addition, it seems that during the production process, something that he realized for the first time after receiving opinions from other artists led to the creation of his work.

Silence floating in the calm blue

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Yuko Matsuzawa “Pulse” 2016

- How was this exhibition, ``Here's the Poppy - From Four Small Rooms,'' planned?

Takegami : With the theme of ``Kishiki'' in mind first, I wanted to include various genres, so I selected two 2D artists and one sculpture and installation artist. This time, since the last exhibition used the residence room, and because the year is about to change, we are not creating works here, but all the artists are enthusiastic and motivated, and there are many artists who want to create new works. Some people asked me to make some for this occasion. This work uses various materials such as Japanese painting materials, indigo, ceramics, and leaf veins.

It was a coincidence that the overall color was bluish, but I feel that it brings a sense of cohesiveness to the space, and that there is a sense of serenity throughout the space that I had not imagined when I was planning it. I think each customer has a different sensibility, so I hope they can experience it in a variety of ways.

Starting this year, we have prepared a monthly event program, and in May we also held a performance at the exhibition hall as a related event to the special exhibition. This is our first attempt at inviting people who are interested in music and dance to come and learn about this facility. In the future, in addition to exhibition-related events, we plan to hold one workshop, lecture, or symposium every month.

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