A Report of 14 days visiting theNATIONAL CULTURALFESTIVALBY FIONA CHENG

Sipping the Kisuki tea which I got from Hayashi’s hands at the stall of Daichakai inKitsuki. The smell of Sencha comes from the gentle and peaceful mountains, soft leaves
release chartreuse liquid that shows the breath of new spring, quite different from theTaiwan tea. It was a good experience to join the activities of Daichakai in Oita as aresearcher. It is significant also nostalgic, recalled the old time of studying Japaneseculture.

The Theme:

DAICHAKAI“Daichakai" is originated from Grand Kitano Tea Ceremony hosted by Toyotomi
Hideyoshi in Kyoto in 1587, one member of BEPPU PROJECT Nakamura san told me.
“That’s why we made the theme as ‘Daichakai', to aim it could open to everyone. No
matter you are rich or poor, young or old, unintelligent or shrewd can come and enjoy."
Like someone doesn’t know anything about Sado still can get the chance toappreciate Sado. “Everybody can join,” the words from Nakamura san has been lingeringin my head for a while. Looking back the very beginning activities of BEPPU PROJECT, tothe contemporary art festival "Mixed Bathing World”, and then to now, you may feel theJapanese avant-garde's thread slightly flies over the whole activities and changing overitself. I just want to get more time to know how does the metaphor of Beppu
PROJECT develop until now.

MOUNTAINS, KEMURI,SOY SAUCE
On the first day arrived at Japan, I
looked out the window in the bus,
watching the image moves back. I
wrote on my note, “We passed
through round-shape mountains andgentle slopes, like ocean. Thevegetation on it looks coordinatedwith the environment while thecurling onsen steam rises
everywhere. The city is livelybreathing."

Professor Yamaguchi san told me, the soy sauce culture in Oita is quite different thanany other places of Japan, “Check out the supermarket”, “you will see so many genres ofsoy sauce on the store shelves in Oita that is not a common scene in Japan”. I hoped toknow more about the soy sauce culture in Oita but I should focus on art this time.

TAKETA ART CULTURE＆KUNISAKIFrom the seaside to themountains, the train brought us
crossing through the valleys andflying over the river, thenjumping into a tunnel and being
revealed from the darkness. Thetime and space on the train islike portal box that moves us toanother magical world. After the
beautiful train journey, we
followed a curator Hanada san’s
step walking around Taketa city.
It is a little town in the mountains
with rivers. At another day,
Oyama san drove me to Kunisaki
to visit Shinya Nakano san’sstudio.
Autumn is a tranquil season forwalking. From Ushima’ workat Former Chikuden Cottage, toOlectronica’s sculpture at a local
library; from Nagano san’s La
Paloma studio to the artist

couple’s Suzumegusa studio. There were few renovated old houses by artists (that mustbe fun to do renovation by themselves) in Taketa and Kunisaki. In both places, we spent
the whole afternoon or evening waking over sites along with artworks or art studio.
In Taketa, our final destination is Oka Han Shuotamaya Park where Olectronica with
their friends were installing an artwork. Most of the audience who joined the guide tour
including me and other peers, art students, friends of artists, all stayed until the ending
event. What we did was just watching the process of installing the final artwork.

That was a gibbous moon night, people all work hard, look happily under themoonlight. Maybe it is just like what Nakano san has been doing at Kunisaki, all of them
contribute their talent to making their living place as where they want to live1 at. It’s good
to see how people work together to build the future for themselves, not just living without
participation to the future. “All you need to do is just to give people a vision while there
was nothing. An imagination can bring out the ideas out one after another 2”, “I feel like

1 (町を⾃自分が住みたいところに作っている)2(誰でも想像しいうちに、あるイメージを与え出したら、次の発想はどんどん出てくる)what I am doing is just making a place where I’m interested3.” Nakano san says. “We aremaking the event that we could enjoy4 “, Olectronica says.
Even the creative immigrants slowly increase in those places, the amount of how
many audience came to see exhibition is not really an important thing to the artist. Thepoint is to continue making their artwork and enjoying the process of creating something.
The situation is a little similar to what’s happening in Taiwan that no one really knows theway to the future. But maybe that is exactly the interesting point, doing something no one
knows5.
Let's think about the future of the place as an artist, rather than only from the view ofbeing a local. Thinking individually doesn’t mean selfish6 . These visits gave me an
inspiration to rethink the place I live. Better not to make individual dissolved in thecommunity7.
After coming back from Japan to my home town, I started to plan a small event that
totally came from my desiring. My own imagination to the future.

KISUKII joined one of Chakai in Ohara Family's House8 on my sixth visit day. The Chakaiprocess was happened in a completely silence. It is captivating to see how the host andguests react to each other without saying anything but enjoying the tea. Later, I walked
around this charming town and met a couple are listening to a guy who is the student ofhistory department at Beppu University. This young guy guided us walking to various
old houses and old street. From the Japanese thatching roof to the shapeof stone on sloping road, he explained to us the historical background in detail that

3 (⾃自分が⾯面⽩白いと思える町をつくっているような感じ)

4 (⾃自分が楽しんでイベントをやっています)
5 (未来への道はまだわからないけど、わからないからこそ、⾯面⽩白い)
6 (その地域だけの視点で未来を考えるのではなく、もっとアーティストのように⾃自分の視点から出発して考えてみましょう。)
7 (⾃自分をキャンセルしてからコミュニティの公共性を考えるより、⾃自分はコミュニティの⼀一員として、⾃自分が欲しいコミュニティの未来を考えてから⾏行行動したらよりよいと思われます)
8 (⼤大原邸)

changed our way of seeing. It was fun to imagine people’s mind and life during old era
from his information. We feel much engaged with the place.

HITA'S MOUNTAIN,RIVER, LIGHT, AND SOUND
Before the event, no audience knew where will be the venue, all audience were justbeing carried by arranged buses. At the last moment audience just knew that a concert isgoing to happen beside Oyama dam. The wall of the dam is magnificent, 99m×370m,occupied half of the sky. It is really an excellent place to make theatrical performance.
People sit on the lawn or lied down casually. The light in the night shape our feeling to thespace. Though I expected a little more with the performance that I think it should play
more with this exceptional space, no doubt that the whole project was just fascinating.

ACTION!
In Taiwan there are some organisations work with the elderly and disables, but not yet
having an exhibition digging the topic with the people so deeply like what I see at
Oita Prefectural Art Museum. The exhibition “Action!” shows the rich layers of rethinking
the society that we used to be familiar with. Standard of the society can be changed when
the standpoint changes. The exhibition shows the shifting of standing point though thedelicate setting and the way of display. This exhibition naturally brings the audience into
an experiential situation that let us imagines a changing structure of the present society,and creates a potential dynamics for a real change.

SUMMARY,
AND SOME OTHER THOUGHTS
Professor Yamaguchi san has told me that there were almost no artist in the National
Cultural Festival before 2018 and focusing on disables. Both are new to the event. If you
see on the whole, National Cultural Festival 2018 definitely has evolutionary intention tocreate an impact on the local cultural administration. Someone told me that the art isrelated to human right in Oita because it aim the openness to the society. From thedelicate Japanese culture, I felt what BEPPU PROJECT emphasises is the importance ofmaking a better diversity society in Japan.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTBEPPU PROJECT: YAMAIDE san, MATSUDA san, OYAMA san, NAKAMURA san, HAYASHI san,Basara House: YAMADA san, MIYAKAWA san, Machisu san,
TAKETA ART CULTURE: SAWADA san, Olectronica
Kunisaki: NAKANO san,Oita city: YAMAGUCHI sensei, SAITO san, NOCHI san,Sabrina VITALI,Lumpini Kindergarten: KUWAKADO san

Thank you for your support!

FionaFeb. 2019