Published an ENGLISH version of our activities 2020-2022 in a BOOK.
The age of core members of Unit Ulus range from those in their 20s to 70s, and those taking part include not only artists and students but also farmers, a lumberjack, and a gardener. The power of art, which is inherent in all human beings, has always gently pushed us to overcome problems.
Click on Book image to view all pages in English. (52MB)
Art of Nora(= Art of the Fields) 2024 Breathing the Earth / Leaflet
Signal fires will be held simultaneously in Minuma and on the west coast of the U.S. as a sign that charcoal is returned to the earth and used for agriculture.
Social Art/Unit Ulus
Participating
Hiromasa Tayga Abe, sculptor, Chiba, Japan & Perugia, ltaly
Wakako Emori, artist, Kanagawa
Takeshi Hagiwara, lumberjack, Saitama
Tetsuya Hagiwara, farmer, Saitama
Chikako Hasegawa, sculptor, Tokyo
Kuniyoshi Ishii, gardener, Saitama
INAKA PUROJECT, farming company
Morin Tami with Hisato Yamamoto, musical performer,Tokyo
Tetsukazu Moriyama, Institute of Archaeoogica Figurative Arts, Tokyo
Hajime Nakamura, shishimai (lion dance), Saitama
Ken Nemoto, student, Architecture Dept. Musashino Art Univ. Saitama
Yu Ohara, moving image artist, Saitama
Shogo Okuda, architect, Chiba
Hirofumi Shibuta, kite craftman Tokyo
Hiroto Sou, dancer, Tokyo
Tsuguo Yanai,washi artist, Saitama
Nobuo Yoshikawa, moving image artist, Kanagawa
Fukuichi Yoshida,artist, Tokyo
Cooperation
Farm in Sagiyama : Satomi Hagiwara(representative)
NPO Minuma Farm 21 : Yumiko Shimada(representative)
SU Farm : Representative : Minehito Okamoto
Future Heritage Minuma Rice Field Project Promotion Committee : Norio Kitahara
Minuma 100 Year Plan Association : Akiko Mizuno
Art and City Tour Project Implementation Committee : SMF(Saitama Muse Forum)
Life Art Research Committee, Institute of Environmental Arts and Design
Leamed-scape Sightama
Kiryokukan
Saitama Railway Corporation
Chuetsu Pulp&Paper Co.Ltd.
Mochizuki Printing Co.Ltd.
Open Street Co.Ltd.
Script Co.Ltd.
Risa Ito
Megumi Ishibashi
Koji Ishizaki
Kazuhiro Takabatake
Yumiko Yoshitake
Project leaders
Hiromasa Tayga Abe
Ken Nemoto
Fukuichi Yoshida
History of Social Art
Jan 2002 Founded by Fukuichi Yoshida in Senkawa, Chofu City, Tokyo
Apr 2005 Office moved to Kokuryo, Chofu City, Tokyo
Jul 2010 Charcoal kiln set up at Kojima Farm, Onoji, Machida City, Tokyo.
Closed in 2015,
Dec 2011 Formation of the activity unit 'Unit Ulus', which has been putting on
various projects since.
July 2015 Office moved to Ochiai, Tama, Tokyo
Jan 2018 Social Art Terayama Branch established in Terayama, Midori-ku,
Saitama City, Saitama Prefecture with Tetuya Hagiwara as the representative.
Feb 2018 Charcoal kiln set up at Kaminoda, Midori-ku, Saitama City.
'Charcoal Burning Association' set up by Fukuichi Yoshida.
About Social Art/Unit Ulus
The name 'Ulus' was first proposed by the artist, Hiromasa Tayga Abe when he was exhibiting in 2011 in the Mobile Museum, a touring exhibition project organised by the Museum of Modern Art Saitama, as a member of Social Art whose work was presented in a yurt. Abe felt then that what Social Art was aiming to achieve was the same as the concept of ‘ulus’, which in modern Mongolian means ‘nation’ but in the ancient language meant ‘vortex of people’, and defines a concept that refers to a self-sustaining assembly of people without borders.Considering the history of Mongoloid migration, it seems likely that this spirit was passed on to the Jomon people who settled in Japan and probably resides somewhere deep in our collective memory. It is a historical tendency towards self-reliance, independence, unity and maintaining of a certain level of trust. The Unit Ulus (vortex) aims to reflect, to share and to experience together the source of creativity, and to transmit wisdom, placing great importance on communication between people as they come into contact with nature through the earth.
Art as a way of actively touching the world. It approaches gently and encourages you, providing you with strength to overcome obstacles. People connect with each other and amplify their energy like a vortex. It engages with society, sharing the power of art.
Unit Ulus’s current activities are rooted in the community and combine the creativity of agriculture with the creativity of art.
How ‘Art of Nora’ came about
Social Art was established in 2002 at Fukuichi Yoshida's exhibition, ’Social Art Exhibition: THE Ichiba’ (ichiba means market in Japanese). At the time of its conception, the collective was simply named Social Art, using the term as a proper noun for the purpose of constructing the concept of
social art. Between 2008 and 2010, Social Art defined social nature of art as social capital and exhibited works such as The Menko-ya Rokumondo, Pizza Mobile and Shichirindo (kitchen car) using seven rickshaws, collectively named Jiriki Koseisha (autonomous welfare cart).
In 2011, Social Art created a unit within the collective, called Ulus, which practiced charcoal burning and focused on agriculture as a basis for life. After Unit Ulus created their first charcoal kiln work in 2011, they went on to produce charcoal clay works with water purification function, objects made from bamboo charcoal which also contributed to the maintenance of overgrown bamboo forests, and charcoal works made from various waste materials such as food residue. ‘Hut conferences’ were held in one of the three yurts constructed out of bamboo and the during the TANBO project in 2016, 20m long straw paper was made in rice paddies, led by Tsuguo Yanai. The participants became acutely aware that the key to solving the problems of modern society lies hidden in the way farming is carried out. At the same time, they conducted rice husk burning which is beneficial for the soil, in Niigata and Saitama, and made earthenware brazier. Unit Ulus has been organising various projects, such as on- site exhibitions and associated workshops, over the years. Since 2017, a charcoal kiln has been installed at an organic farm, Farm in Sagiyama in Saitama City, gradually expanding their activities. Around the same time, Unit Ulus also began working with Yuuki no Sato Towa in Fukushima prefecture, a village known as ‘home of organic farming’, and were able to experience the vitality of satoyama*(p3). The idea for the term ‘Art of Nora’ was suggested by head of the farm.