Aomori Contemporary Art Centre (ACAC) is part art centre and part residence facility, serving as a base camp for artists who visit, stay, and then move on to other places. In ACAC as a Base Camp, we imagined a scenario in which ACAC had been affected by some kind of disaster. The participants all became players in this hypothetical drama, joining ACAC staff, co-curator SAWA Takashi, and guest AIZAWA Kumi as they held a two-day, one-night campout and disaster evacuation drill.

Timetable
Day 1: 20 September (Sat)
15:30-16:00: Assembly
10 participants, along with 3 ACAC staff members, Sawa, Aizawa, and photographer IWANE Ai, braved the heavy rain that had been falling since noon to gather in the lounge of the Exhibition Hall.

16:00-17:00: Self-introductions
The ACAC staff were in the middle of introducing themselves when the lights were turned off inside the building. Pretending that a power outage had occurred, the participants continued taking turns introducing themselves and their individual strengths as they passed around a portable lantern that one of them had brought with them.

17:00-17:30: Behind-the-scenes tour
ACAC’s technician led the group on a walk-through of the mechanical rooms, boiler rooms, snow storage room, and other parts of ACAC that most visitors never get to see, but which would need to be checked in the event of an emergency to verify the safety of the facilities.

17:30-18:30: Talk by Aizawa
The lights came back on as the group returned to the lounge. The participants and staff sat in a circle and listened to a talk given by Aizawa.

18:30-21:00: Dinner
The 16 campers moved to the dining room of the Residential Hall and cooked curry in small groups. They were joined by TANJI Rie, one of the Open-call AIR residency artists who was then staying at the Residential Hall. After dinner, everyone cleaned up together.

21:00-21:30: Deciding where to sleep
Everyone gathered around the dining room table to discuss how to make the sleeping arrangements. The women decided to sleep in the Lecture Room of the Creative Hall, while the men chose to spend the night in Gallery A of the Exhibition Hall.

21:30-22:30: Getting ready for bed
The campers divided into groups and made their beds, deciding amongst themselves how to apportion the mats, the sleeping bags they had brought, and the limited number of cardboard beds.

22:30-0:00: Reading session
ACAC’s director arrived at the centre and joined the camp. After moving to the Workshop Studio in the Creative Hall, the group members talked about the books each had brought with them. There was a good variety of material, including picture books, novels, essays, catalogs, and stacks of photographs taken by one participant at the time of the Great East Japan Earthquake.

0:00: Bedtime

Day 2: 21 September (Sun)
6:00-7:00: Waking up

7:00-7:30: Breakfast
Everyone gathered in the dining room of the Residential Hall to eat a breakfast prepared by OGASAWARA Mutsuko, who works part-time as a receptionist at ACAC.

7:30-8:00: Preparation for departure
The campers put away their bedding and prepared to depart ACAC.

8:00: Departure from ACAC
The campers left ACAC for the Aomori City Gymnasium under clear skies.