Anthony Bond

Assistant Director, Curatorial & Head Curator International Art
Art Gallery of New South Wales

"I have been at all four Triennales since 2000 and each time it has been a delightful experience. I have been invited into private houses in small communities where we have had wonderful personal contact, spending weeks living in the community. I have found country people easy to communicate with in spite of language barriers. Everyone is enthusiastic and helpful. It is this interaction with major international art identities with local people that makes this such a unique event and by far the most enjoyable International contemporary art festival. The landscape and the traditional villages in the region also make this an amazing opportunity for international artists and most of all when they are able to work with the architecture. The permanent installations are also astonishing from Janet Laurence and Marina Abramovic and Robyn Backen in the old village in the hills to Anne Graham's Snake path in Nanatsugama and to Boltanski and Turrell and many others this is as good an art experience as you can find anywhere in the world."

Hossein Valamanesh

Artist

"My involvement in the first Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale was part of an ongoing relationship with Art Front Gallery and Mr Fram Kitagawa. It was a great opportunity to explore a number of ideas and sites and eventually construct the temporary installation "In Memory of Snow".

The cooperative process of working with volunteers and staff of the Triennale was very rewarding. Over the last Triennales I've been aware of further involvement with Australian artists and the establishment of Australia House is another step in this cultural exchange and I hope that I'll continue to be involved in the future."

Andrea Kleist

Public Art Program Manager, City of Melbourne

Having had the opportunity to deeply engage with the 2006 Triennale, this event and its people created a memorable experience that still resonates within me. The Echigo-Tsumari Triennale constitutes a most generous invitation: it is an opportunity to encounter a compelling selection of artworks located throughout the arresting landscape of northern Japan; to connect with the local culture and its people and by doing so to comprehend their specific concerns whilst pondering universal questions. This far-reaching hybrid art project emphasizes the human scale - genuine human needs and human dreams. It is compassionately local and thoughtfully international, truly relevant in its intention and tremendously sincere in its ambition.

Spread out across the Niigata region this Triennale resists quick consumption but rather fosters an approach akin to a pilgrimage, inherently devoted to life and its complexities. The ever-growing success of this initiative is a testament to the commitment of organisers, volunteers and participating artists and to the openness of the local Japanese communities.

Sue Pedley

Artist

My first visit to Echigo-Tsumari was during the autumn of 2004 to research a project for the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale 2006 at a time when the farmers were busy harvesting the rice. My project involved local people of all ages with the assistance of Kohebi-tai (volunteers from the city), embroidering 500 woollen tapestries based on traditional woven objects Two years later I returned to install my work in the summer. It was a very exciting experience winding through the lush green landscape of Matsunoyama to the Shinto Rice Festival in the small village of Matsuguchi.

Working on high ladders we attached the tapestries onto a 'haze', a large wooden structure used for drying rice. In the midst of heavy rain we huddled in a farm shed drinking tea, singing and laughing. During the process of art -making warm and open relationships had formed between the farmers and the Kohebi-tai, so much so they planned to return to help with the harvest.

At the time of the triennale we travelled through the mountains seeing extraordinary art projects involving communities. In all the villages old and often abandoned wooden houses were being restored by artists and architects or used as installation space. In one house a group of architecture students carved patterns all over the old wooden beams and floors revealing layers of smoke stained surfaces.

One of the most memorable walks for me was through a beech forest, following stone markers inscribed with provocative words by Jenny Holzer. An unforgettable experience was a night spent in Marina Abramovic's 'Dream House' taking a bath filled with local herbs and then sleeping in a box with a stone pillow.

It was enriching meeting local people and artists and volunteers from so many places during this exciting event, which has left a lasting impression on me.