Relaxed: 2023 Laboratory of Forest Art

On 17 September, aka last Sunday, it opened 2023 annual art show by the Laboratory of Forest Art. The closing will be on October 22, which means this year’s show is at least a week longer than the previous years. This is their 20th year for exhibition in the forest. Until this year, the GROUP the Creation and Voice of the Woods has received a grant from Midori Ward 緑区 for their art creation. But, Mr. Ishiyama, the coordinator of the Group, told me, “Naomi, we’ve received a sort of ultimatum saying that 2023 is the final year for the money from Midori Ward. Thank God, Asahi Ward 旭区 OKed to support us from next year, but it will be year-by-year basis … We’re thinking how to proceed from now on. In any case, receiving an art grant from Midori Ward for 20 consecutive years is extraordinary. We must be grateful for all …” Might be ironically (or not), their show has started, it seems to me, to be an annual event of the community in Midori and Asahi Wards of Yokohama. I’ve heard several casual strollers in the Niiharu Citizen Forest 新治市民の森, or in the area around Yokohama Zoorasia, chatted “Oh yeah, the annual show begins this Sunday!”. Many people, I included, visited the place before 8 o’clock in the morning to enjoy the art before the attack of heatwave. The Satoyama Garden Show by the City of Yokohama may help to disseminate info for their existence … The Laboratory is in the next forest, just 5 minutes’ walk from the Satoyama Garden (; Satoyama Garden Festa has begun on 16 September for Fall and will close on 15 October).

Anyway, let us see how things go for the next year (and beyond). This week I introduce you the new installations the artists located this year in the forest. It becomes, I would say, more natural conversations between the artists and the forest. I found the artists themselves are more relaxed than before and playing with the ever-changing scenery of nature. Let me begin.

The map for 2023 show

Follow me.

1. “Folk Art” in the Open Space at the entrance
Mr. Katsuyuki Ishiyama explained from this year some members of the Group who had been more forest volunteers than artists decided to show their art creation in the Forest. Their work is installed along the promenade from Zoorasia and in the Open Space at the entrance.

Late Summer Greetings from the Space, by Kiminito Zama

by Ryoko Iino

.color, by Mariko Kijima

by Hisako Watanabe & David Weiner

 A Parade of Seeds, by Katsuyuki Ishiyama

Life and Work in Satoyama, by David Weiner

Radiance in the Parallel World, by Norio Endoh

Balloons in a forest, by Yukiko and Kokona Hase

As always, at the entrance they provide maps for installations in the forest. Please take one, enjoy the Folk Art in the open space and follow the direction yellow arrows show. Here begins the installations (in the order from following the direction of yellow arrows);

2. Forest Wing Garden, by Toshikazu Kanai

Kanai’s last years’ installations,
the Journey of Ruined Boat,
became a sort of country hedge where
forest volunteers collect cripped grass and twigs inside.
It’s getting more and more dramatic …

3. Stranger in the Forest, by Haruna Chikada

It’s a warning for survival gamers who scatter plastics in the forest. They eventually contaminate the soil as microplastics …

Chikada for the Art Walk on September 17

4. Is the Tower Man a Sloth? by Kazuo Ishikuro

His last year’s Tower Men have now
accomplices of mushrooms.

5. In the Forest, by ASADA

A sort of additional info ASADA has not written in the HP. Have you found these blue and yellow steps? They then join with red and white steps that go the same direction with blue and yellow. The white steps gradually getting smaller … (according to her, it symbolizes the flow of Japanese society …) Then, suddenly, large steps of red, blue and white blocks the trekking road trying to go the opposite direction. What you read from these color patterns is completely depending on you.

6. Sign, by Youichiro Yoshikawa

Have you noticed some cones are
swinging over Yoshikawa’s Lordless Garden?
He said
“Just try to find them and
you’ll see the swings of treetops and sky …
 It’s pure fun!”

7. Dust or Treasure, by Youko Kiga

I think Kiga’s theme these days is wondering along the border of human world and some magical world for which a forest has an entrance …

8. Bond (Wood Connect), by Akatsuki Harada

Harada said it has a solid structure and kids can come and play here safely.

9. And the last installation is by Katsuyuki Ishiyama, “Appearing, Disappearing”

The forest of the GROUP is as always next to Yokohama Zoorasia. Since there is no parking, a recommended access to the show is by bus. The most convenient transportation is a bus ride to Yokohama Zoorasia, from JR Nakayama 中山 Station, Sotetsu Tsurugamine 鶴ヶ峰 Station, or Sotetsu Mitsukyo 三ツ境 Station. (Timetables are here.) Get off the bus at the North Gate of Zoorasia that is the closest to the art exhibition entrance. When you leave the terminal stop of Zoorasia North Gate, go back a bit along the bus road, and on your left is the sign for the GROUP. From there enter the forest. The road is a relatively wide walking promenade. Soon you can see a big banner over there saying “the Creation and Voice of the Woods 創造と森の声.”

The banner you can find from the North Gate busstop.

Welcome!

If you find a problem in the site introduced in this post, the best contact address will be GROUP the Creation and Voice of the Woods.

https://morilab.amebaownd.com/
e-mail: morinokoe7@yahoo.co.jp

The city office which is in charge of this forest is

Office for the Park Greeneries in the North 北部公園緑地事務所
Yokohama Municipal Government Creative Environment Policy Bureau 横浜市環境創造局
Phone: 045-311-2016 

FAX: 045-316-8420