Fellowship at AIAV. Art Residency at Akiyoshidai International Art Village. (Part 1)

Time flies and I have been at Akiyoshidai International Art Village for two weeks now. I reckon that it would nice of me to write a little about this place, since so little has been written about it.

AIAV is designed by Japan’s most illustrious architect, Arata Isozaki. This place is huge and was intentionally designed for music performances and the Arts.

Akiyoshidai International Art Village

Akiyoshidai International Art Village 

There’s also accommodation next to the main building and I was assigned with a comfortable room here. 

My room at Akiyoshidai International Art Village

The great thing about AIAV is its uber remote location. It is literally smacked right in the mountains of Akiyoshido. Caveat? It is seriously far away from everything.  The closest town, Mito, is half an hour of walk from AIAV. Surrounded by nature and serenity, it’s the perfect place for an art retreat; there is really no-one to disturb you here. 

See the town down hill ?That's Mito ....Getting down there is fun ... alll downhill. Coming back ? Its a great work out....

I been biking about 5km daily for lunch. The hilly roads are a great workout :P 

My trusted Japanese girlfriend, Kumiko. She is quite cranky when we go uphill, often slipping gears and scaring the shit out of me when I am struggling. Cost ? 50 yen a day. She's low maintenance. Right up my alley

This is Mito. The place where I hoard all my food from :)

The produce at Mito. Freshhhhh

AIAV is well equipped and is run by a dedicated team of more than 20 members. The centre is open 24 hours and public can reserve studios to practice their musical instruments in the middle of the nights here. As part of my fellowship, I was granted a dedicated 24/7 studio to work on my art. It is really quite amazing.

Studio 1 for me to use 24/7 a day :) wonderful 

Laser Art work at night by Japanese Artist Kazuhiko Miwa

AIAV isn't all deserted. There are people here when there are events and music competition/ concerts.

A peek at someone's practice :)

drum-sets public can access to for their sessions in the studios :)

How did I get the residency? Well, I simply applied for their open call and was accepted for the 2015 fellowship. http://aiav.jp/english/artist-in-residence

Subsequently, I also applied for a grant under National Art Council and acquired some subsidies for my air ticket. To be honest, I was quite surprised to have gotten the residency. Most residencies tend to bias towards ‘pure conceptual’ art.

How to get to AIAV?
It’s far from Tokyo. I first arrived in Tokyo NRT on a delayed plane.. from there, I took an hour bus ride to Haneda Airport and caught my 1 hour domestic flight to Yamaguchi UBE. 

Narita to Haneda

I love good old Boeing planes. Beautiful bird. From Haneda to UBE

From here, I hop onto a 30 minute bus that took me to Shin Yamaguchi Train station. (850 yen) Here’s where the adventure begins. No one really speaks any English at Yamaguchi and the bus intervals are like a few hours apart. Taxi from Yamaguchi to Akiyoshido is expensive too…though I did prepare to spend on the taxi, I thought it would be interesting to experience the distance I can go with public commute. Bear in mind, I have two luggage with me, a total of 40 kg to hoard around. In the end, I managed to board a bus that took me right to Akiyoshido cave and transit into a short cab ride (1000 yen) to AIAV. It was an interesting experience and I have no clue what the bus driver said and was glad that he let me onto the bus with my two huge luggage. Special thanks to the lady working at the Train Station. She told the bus driver where I would go and helped me get to Akiyoshido Cave. I didn’t get a sim card this trip due to the flight delay.. but it all worked out without google. Phewww

Lucky bus ride . I was the only passenger on this more than 1 hour of non stop riding :)

hehehe, manage to drag this onto the bus all the way to Akiyoshido Cave !!! Yesss

Final leg to AIAV. A cab ride with a Taxi driver who knows AIAV. 2km and 1000 yen later ? I made it.
Total travel time from Singapore was more than 16 hours. 

I passed out for more than 12 hours straight when I got to AIAV :) My residency is from Dec 12 until Dec 28.