People Art and Territory

The Peope, Art and Territory project, conceived by the Piantini Zaganelli duo, has transformed the Port Art and Design Tsuyama cultural centre into a catalyst for free public initiatives and events aimed at the city’s residents: meetings, workshops, collective activities, walks, presentations, concerts and networking.
An opportunity to promote the social and community role of a local art space, whilst at the same time encouraging residents to engage with contemporary art forms and the possibilities they open up in terms of perspective and imagination.
Throughout October 2023, the artists launched and promoted a series of activities involving various sections of society: from children and the elderly to secondary school pupils, from entrepreneurs, artists and cultural practitioners to unique local organisations such as Emi Photo studio, which has been documenting the history of Tsuyama since the mid-19th century.
The aim was to transform the Port Art & Design into an open, accessible and dynamic venue – not merely an exhibition space but a place for meeting, connecting and discovering – ensuring it was enjoyed by as many people as possible, the majority of whom were visiting it for the first time as part of the project.
The engagement process culminated in a three-day closing event, during which the results of the month-long residency and collaboration were presented, along with video installations created by the artists and students, a photography exhibition, other interventions and a series of talks focusing on the area’s cultural resources.

Among the activities:

• a week long workshop with the students of Tsuyama High School Art Club (3rd, 4th and 5th grade), where we invited the group (by chance made up of only girls) to experiment with alternative media and to produce a one minute video on general theme of “woman”
   
• a collective walk with a botanist, to discover local plants and natural resources
   
• a community lunch organized with the association Jibako involving elderly people, children and families, cooking all together.
   
• two-day conferences hosting local artists, artisans, designers, entrepreneurs active in the area, to discuss the local context and the role of culture as a resource. 

The final event at Port Art & Design included:

• an exhibition of the local photographic studio-archive Emi Photo Studio, that has been documenting the territory and local populations through images since for more than 130 years. Together with the owner Mr. Emi, the duo selected a series of images representing the people, the territory, the local customs and cultures and edited into a slideshow in order to create a parallel between the present and the past.
• the videos created by the Tsuyama High School Art Club students 
• the projection of the video work “Tsuyama Oggi” - literally Tsuyama Today - created by the duo Piantini Zaganelli (here below you can watch a brief extract)
• an installation composed of various materials created by the participants: blue aprons, drawings, texts, ecc.
• an opening party with a concert
• a panel entitled "A discussion on local resources: from forests to unused properties"
• a conference entitled "Between art and culture: contemporary approaches in the North Okayama Prefecture"

People, Art and Territory 
a project conceived by: Silvia Piantini and Giacomo Zaganelli

produced by: Port Art and Design Tsuyama, Yohei Iizuna
coordinated by: Yusuke Okura 
in collaboration with: Jibako, Tsuyama High School
supported by: Okayama Prefecture Cultural Funding