About the Setouchi Triennale
The Setouchi Triennale
The Setouchi Triennale is a contemporary art festival held every three years on the islands of the Seto Inland Sea. Launched in 2010, it lasts 100 days and is divided into spring, summer and fall sessions, allowing visitors to enjoy the Setouchi region in different seasons. The Triennale is one of Japan’s foremost international art festivals, attracting about one million people from Japan and overseas.
Site specific works serve as guides for discovering each island and venue, including the scenery, history, culture, lifestyle, local industries, and cuisine. They also serve as a portal for interaction with artists, residents and volunteer supporters. This approach has won the Triennale many ardent fans.
The Triennale has also won international acclaim as a novel approach to tourism, appearing in many well-known magazines and media overseas.
To present the diverse charms of the Setouchi region and contribute to its revitalization, Setouchi Triennale 2025, the sixth triennial and the first to be held since the end of the COVID-19 global health emergency, will be expanded to include the coastal towns of Shido, Tsuda, Hiketa, and Utazu, bringing the total number of participating areas to 17.
Restoration of the Sea
The Setouchi Triennale was inspired by the desire to bring smiles back to the faces of the islanders, particularly the elders. To do this, it must contribute to a brighter future for local communities and ensure that visitors are a source of joy. Our aim is to restore and revitalize the entire region.
Throughout recorded history, the Seto Inland Sea has been a source of bounty for the rest of Japan and a conduit and nurturing ground for culture. For centuries, clans fought for control of its rich resources. From the 17th century, it was an important route for transporting goods from northern Japan to Osaka as well as for Korean delegations who linked isolated Japan with the culture of the Asian continent.
In recent times, however, the Inland Sea, which provided such a vital connection, became politically isolated and fragmented. Industrial pollution and toxic waste degraded the environment, while globalization, rationalization and homogenization eroded the islands’ distinctive cultures. Island populations declined and aged, diminishing the region’s vitality.
The Triennale’s aim is to revitalize the Seto Inland Sea region, where people lived in harmony with the natural environment, and to transform it into a Sea of Hope. Site specific artworks are developed so that visitors journeying to the different Setouchi communities can learn from a way of life in which farming, local industry and commerce were intricately intertwined, while also directing their thoughts toward a vision of how we, as one human family, want to live on this earth.