Period

August 22[Sat] – August 30 [Sun], 2026 (Exhibition)

Eve Festival: August 29 [Sat]

Main Festival: August 30 [Sun]

Venue

Lake Kizaki, Shinano Hall, Nishimaru Shinya Memorial Hall, Millennium Forest, Lake Kisaki POWWOW,Yamanoko Village, and others.

Organizer

NPO Primitive Sense Company

Co-organizer

Nobuyuki Sugihara

Coordinators

Ayaka Nakamura, Kaoruco (Millennium Forest)

 

Artists

Shinji Asai, Gaishi Ishizaka, Otsubo Kazumichi, Kaoruco, Fumio Tsutsui, Junichi Kuzume x nao, Masayuki Kuroda x Mina Sasaki, Genryu Miasa Drum, Hiromu Sato, Experimental Body Mudai, Nobuyuki Sugihara, Ayaka Suzuki, Masami Tada, Tatsuki, Atsushi Tomatsu, Ayaka Nakamura, Sahi Tsumura, Nils Johnson(USA), Jhonnam Ha (Korea), Hime-ringo,  Shunichiro Hisada, Yuki Yuko and others

<Permanent> Eisaku Ando, Edgar Banasan (Kalinga Tribe, Philippines) x Ayaka Yamashita, Daisuke Kagawa, Masayuki Kuroda x Mina Sasaki x Haruna Sugisaki x Ayaka Toyoshima, Zai Kuning (Singapore), Yi-hui Chen (Taiwan), Dorothea Seror(Germany), Fiona Paterson (France), Sakurako Hamaguchi, Parco Kinoshita, Taeko Mori, runegraf (Italy)

Photo:

 

The Primitive Sense Art Festival is funded by donations. We appreciate your support.
The names of donors will be displayed at the Shinano Hall, the venue for the evening festival and main festival.
*If you have any preferences regarding the display of your name, please let us know at primitivesenseart@gmail.com.

 

The Tidings of Water

The Shinano Primitive Sense Art Festival, now in its 17th year, will be held under the theme “The Tidings of Water.” Centered around Lake Kizaki, one of the Nishina Three Lakes that hold the snowmelt waters of the Northern Alps, the festival draws on the archaic word tamadzusa, meaning “messenger” or “tidings.” By becoming messengers of water and delivering the “tidings of water” born from its abundance, the festival aspires to help every visitor rediscover that they are, in their own way, an expressive creator.

Primitive Sense

When people straightly face to the nature, primitive sense will return to our feeling. I think fine art is born at that moment. “Nature” is not only at outside of us, contains the life of ourselves, inherited from the origin of life. The true richness is that there is beauty normally in the living that has been inherited from the Jomon period. We will create a local “culture” by staying on the shore of Lake Kizaki, which is surrounded by the majestic nature of the Japanese Northern Alps, and creating expressions that can only be created by meeting local people who live there. It is to create a festival as a cultural boundary that connects the outside and the locals, connects art and tradition, and cities and regions.

 

 

Application details

Any genre is welcome. Anything that inhabits and evokes primitive sense.

1: Residency production

Participation for the duration of the residency (15th Aug-31th Aug), including the period of the art festival (29 Aug-30 Aug).
Works created that can be exhibited will be exhibited from 22 Aug to 30 Aug.
*Artists in residence must be able to participate until the Feast on the evening of the main festival on 30 Aug.
*There is no budget this year. Please secure your own budget to participate. We can send you an invitation to participate. *A place to stay will be provided free of charge.

2: Exhibition participation

During the exhibition period (22 Aug – 30 Aug),  you can participate in the exhibition.
*There is no budgetary support.

3: Festival participation

You can participate in the festival on 29 Aug, 30 Aug. *Please apply for a plan to run the event with workshop participation fees or donations or sale of artwork or food sales and earn your own participation fees. Please participate by taking sales or workshop participation fees.
*There is no budgetary support.

4: Young artist’s quota

Participation in the residency period (15 Aug – 31 Aug), including the festival period (29 Aug – 30 Aug). Young artists who want to have the opportunity to present their work. Participation with the mindset that it would be good if they could have a meal. Participation while assisting with the arts festival.
*No budgetary support is provided. *A place to stay will be provided free of charge.

How to apply.

Please submit your plan in an A4 file or in any other way you wish.
*You may send your work.
*Please submit your primitive sense as if you were sending a letter.
Entries will not be returned.
Entries can also be submitted by e-mail, but the total size of all files must not exceed 5 MB.

Submission

1: Application form → download (pdf)
2: Plan proposal A4 file or free format
3: Images of previous works
4: Budget proposal, schedule and artist statement
Application period
20 April – 20 May 2026 (must arrive by 20 May)

Announcement of results

Scheduled for late June 2026

Residency period

15th August – 31 August 2026 (planned)

Judging

Plans will be decided by director Nobuyuki Sugihara, NPO Primitive Sense Company.