HOW TO STAY

​a wandering exhibition

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This is the third exhibition of the art project ‘How to Stay – a wandering exhibition’, in which six artists think about mobility and each of them organizes an exhibition in their place of residence or birth.

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The first one took place in Halle(Saale) and the second one was in Hof in Germany.

In German there are the words ‘Heimweh’ and ‘Fernweh’. ‘Heimweh’ means ‘home sick’ and ‘Fernweh’ is the opposite and describes "the feeling that you want to go somewhere".

This word does not exist in Japanese, but many people might also understand this emotion of wanting to get away from everyday life.

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‘Weh’ also has the meaning ‘painful’ or ‘hurt’. If you want to go to another place, you would somehow feel ‘pain’ in your heart. It is normal to suffer from beeing between the urge to go to a new place and the fear of the adventurous experiences you’ll encounter.

You change when you go to a new place, learn and experience new things.

When you visit a new place and learn the language and cultural characteristics, when you get used to the local habits and people. It's not only fun, but sometimes hard, too.

One also moves for different reasons.

It can be your own decision, like for holidays.

You might have to go somewhere, like to a business trip.

Or you have to leave because of war or other disasters, even though you don't want to.

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How you determine the destination also varies. You go to a completely new place. You go to a place you have already visited in the past. Or you travel to a place where acquaintances or friends live.

If you have no idea where you want to go, even though you want to travel, then you suffer.

Here, in the Ise-Shima area, is Ise-Jungu.

In the Edo period (1603-1863), visiting Ise was very much in fashion.

People wanted to visit Ise at least once in their lives and if you couldn't visit it yourself, you would sent a dog there instead.

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The pilgrimage is actually a religious activity.

It deepens one's faith. But in modern Japan, a trip to the place where your favourite anime or drama was filmed is also called a pilgrimage.

If a sacred symbol is waiting for someone at their destination, the journey would be even more beautiful and feel more secure for them.

Ise is a symbolic place of religion, but at the same time it could make people feel less ‘wanderlust’.

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In this project, each artist produced an artwork under the topic ‘mobility’ and they are allowed to change their pieces be it for internal and external reasons.

The organisation is done by each artist independently on site.

This means that artists and exhibitions deal with ‘mobility’ as a theme and this project changes and grows through movement

This is the third exhibition of the art project ‘How to Stay – a wandering exhibition’, in which six artists think about mobility and each of them organizes an exhibition in their place of residence or birth.

​

In this project, each artist is allowed to change their pieces be it for internal and external reasons.

The organisation is done by each artist independently on site. This means that artists and exhibitions deal with ‘mobility’ as a theme and this project changes and grows through movement.

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How to Stay Project

Eri Hayashi