The top page of the web magazine, “Art from the Land” features different visual images every month according to a monthly theme. Illustrations for February to April 2020 were drawn by Yosuke Yamaguchi. When visited Echigo-Tsumari covered with snow, Yamaguchi felt as if the existence of “self” was freed and even its outline got burred. Being in nature reminded him of how much he had lost himself. Here, he articulates that experience with newly drawn illustrations.

ETAT reminds people of the Echigo-Tsumari region in Niigata. While many people have come to know about it now, the principal idea of the festival has the potential to reach out beyond the region and expand while making connections with various places. How does Fram Kitagawa, General Director of the festival see such a future?

ETAT is open to many people. When many people gather in one place, it is natural for there to be as many backgrounds and opinions as there are people. What kind of space has ETAT tried to become? Kitagawa, who has been General Director of the festival since its beginning will answer to that question.

The visit to Echigo-Tsumari for Chiaki Mayumura to feel and grasp various arts. In this latter half of the column, she experienced the never-ending landscape of terraced rice field as well as unusual artworks using the entire minka house before reaching at the final stop, Echigo-Tsumari Satoyama Museum of Contemporary Art, KINARE. Find out how the imagination she treasurers resonated with art.

The cover drawing of “Art from the Land” changes in accordance with the monthly theme. Machiko Kyo drew pictures for the October, November and December 2019 issues. In order to draw the cover pictures, she returned to the Echigo-Tsumari Art Festival which she visited repeatedly as an art student. Memories from the first visit to Echigo-Tsumari such as the star-studded sky, encounters with aspirational artworks, the kindness of local people came into her mind as well as the feeling of being troubled when she realised that it was impossible to understand art completely. She writes about her feelings along with drawings for 『美術は大地から』 as she realised the time that has passed when revisiting the place.