Collaboration with Campsirago Residenza
TIAFNA
In 2020, amidst travel restrictions under the pandemic, I was introduced online by my long-standing friend Sjoerd Wagenaar (NL) to his artistic ally Michele Losi, who runs a residency where he hosts annual art festivals in the northern Italian village Campsirago. Sjoerd was also developing his vast terrain in the north of the Netherlands into a village for art, and he suggested the idea of forming an artist-in-residence consortium connecting the three locations - each in the rural community of the country.
We named this initiative TIAFNA (The International Academy for Natural Art) since our common focus was to develop art programs to change people’s perspective and how we interact with nature, and by way of doing so, give a positive impact on the trajectory of the anthropocene.
In TIAFNA framework, we visit each other’s country and develop programs together, invite the local people to the performances featuring each specific location’s identity, which we call “Genius Loci”.
Campsirago - Ukiha 2021
As the first TIAFNA project, we started to work with Michele forming a bilateral network of artists and residencies of Campsirago-Italy and Ukiha-Japan.
In November 2021, I went to Campsirago to stay at his residence and to experience Michele’s repartories represented by Alberi Maestri, meeting up with the artists there and also in Milan.
In order to introduce culture and craft works of our area, as well as this new collaborative initiative, I gave tea sessions to the audience invited by Michele. Among whom were the mayor and vice mayor of Colle Brianza.
Alberi Maestri - Is a theatre experience in nature. A leader will guide a group with headsets on through a path in a forest for about 45 minutes. The participants will experience a story composed by Michele and performed by musicians, actors and poets, while they walk in the forest. The lights, trees, streams and the historical relics on the route will also play a part in the story.
November 2022
Then in November 2022, Michele and his company members came to stay in Ukiha to start creating Japanese version of Alberi Maestri. His primary purpose was to do research on the forests and paths in the areas in and near Ukiha, particularly in relation to the history of pilgrimage.
We went to Mt. Hiko, the oldest sanctuary of Shugendo practice, a kind of nature worship merged with Buddhism.
We had a support of Ukiha City Mayor, Norio Takaki, who recommended for this research some of the historic paths on the side of the Minou mountain range, where there are numerous ancient tumulus mounds dating back to the 2nd Century.
Michele gave a demonstration in one of these routes in Ukiha using the original Alberi Maestri playing on the headphones to give us the ideas how it would work here.
Michele’s another aim was to find artists and craftsmen in Ukiha to collaborate with. Hiro Shinohara - a bamboo artist/craftsman and his partner Mamiko, who is a professional cook, enjoyed interacting with the Italian group enthusiastically and started discussing what we could do altogether in Italy.
May 2023
A delegation from Ukiha - Nori Tanaka, Ryoko Baba, Hiro Shinohara and Mamiko Ishii - went to Italy to perform in the event Japanese Art Experience organized by Campsirago Residenza. (See the link and the post for more.)