Gathering
Kunisaki, Bungotakada a…
Kunisaki Peninsula Art Festival
Gathering
In a land of Buddhas, contemporary art takes up residence. The Kunisaki Peninsula in Oita is a round peninsula jutting into the Seto Inland Sea, long a sacred ground of mountain Buddhism. Its temple complex, called Rokugo Manzan, its stone Buddhas, its cliff carvings, for more than a thousand years people have walked these mountains and prayed to the Buddhas. Onto this peninsula, contemporary art was placed. Within the old landscape of prayer, new expression quietly stands. Buddhism and contemporary art seem far apart, yet both are attempts to give form to what cannot be seen. Permanent works are scattered across the peninsula; you tour them by car or on foot, guided by a map. Along the way, terraced fields spread, villages appear, a temple bell sounds. The search for art becomes a journey into the peninsula itself, where the old and the new meet.