Mobility is human instinct. In human history, nomad hunter-gatherers did not settle down just because they learned farming and cattle-breeding all of a sudden. It is assumed that the change required a tremendously long time and conflict. Tribal people who lived from hand to mouth looking for unknown game cannot switch their lifestyle only because they are told to stay home. Anthropologist Julius Lips introduced the concept of “harvesting people (Feldbeuter)” that links the gap between the nomad and the settled people. The harvesters attained the technology to store food and while they develop the lifestyle of settlement, they move when they need to. They can actually move further away because they have a stock. They are all-round players so to speak.

For many artists, actual travel to somewhere else gives them an important and creative inspirations. Encountering new places and people, we experience decomposition of our own contextures and their reorganization. It is like a twisted yarn coming apart and while it is entangled with other yarn, a thread is spun again. Especially for artists who apply for a residence program, there should be no bigger inspiration. When I lived abroad, I often met artists who were like nomads moving from one residency to another. The ability of hunting and gathering in the Stone Age might evolve to the ability to create application and portfolio as well as being nice to one’s neighbor. On the other hand, there were people who were stressed out because something “did not build up” or “was not dug deep enough.” When moving somewhere else is presupposed, one will not make something heavy and working on one painting for years is out of the question.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, mobility of artists in the social system was restricted, but as we can guess, they did not settle down right away. I do not know if they became harvesters instead. The long stay-home hours, however, made it equally possible for them to move around in time (not in space), that is, building up something or digging deep down. Of course a discovery and spread of a new firearm called “remote work” exerted a great influence in various forms.

Anyway, as the situation settles down to a certain extent worldwide, those artists who have learned the style of harvesters are beginning to move again. In the application materials of residence artists-to-be at ACAC this time, I found a sense of joy for being able to travel with a subtle difference in nuance compared with before. While I looked at the pictures of exhibitions and performances at various residences by the artists from all around the world and their imaginary trip plans called residency and production plans, I felt as if I was taking a trip after a long time. Of course the virus has not gone away and there is another shadow of a new war, and it seems that a concept of the residency production in such a circumstance has come to the next phase. Being distant and getting connected do not make a simple pair of words. In the world where they can be valid at the same time, a new methodology called “remote residence” is being tried.

Their collective creative styles, media and plans are all very diverse and it is difficult to summarize the trend. There are many high-level artists and I found wonderful plans in those that did not pass the screening. The selection criteria that I have set have the following four elements: 1) creativity, 2) concreteness of the plan (feasibility in reality), 3) expectation value, 4) compatibility with the ACAC environment (necessity for visiting here).
I especially valued the fourth criterion. The architecture at ACAC and the surrounding forest are of course fascinating, but there are layers of time in the place called Aomori. The layers of time from the Jomon Era, the Stone Age and even the long prehistoric period are being exposed in the contemporary times and Aomori is the special place where we can get in touch with them.

How would they open themselves up and weave new yarn while getting involved with the time flowing in this place, people who gather there and the world outside of humans? I am interested in how they will be “making things.”