In a town raised by snowmelt, you look at art. Omachi in Nagano sits right at the foot of the Northern Alps, peaks of three thousand meters rising close at hand. Once every few years, an art festival is held here. This is a town of water; snow falling on the Alps melts, flows underground, and wells up, and that clear water has sustained the people's lives. The works are made drawing on that water and those mountains, by a lakeshore, in an old storehouse, in a hillside field, nature and artwork dissolving into one another. Omachi is also the Nagano gateway to the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route, so grand mountain sightseeing and the art festival can be enjoyed together. There is no city clamor, only mountain air, the sound of water, and scattered art. Walk quietly, look quietly. In a town held by mountains, the heart comes loose.