Biwako Biennale 2007 will weave together artistic endeavor and the idea of place in an exciting event designed to help us all appreciate and cherish the indigenous culture and climate of Lake Biwa, Japan--a timeless source of water.

Biwako Biennale takes place amidst the beautiful landscape surrounding Lake Biwa, a beautiful Mother Lake located in the center of Omi Hachiman, Shiga Prefecture, Japan.

Biwako Biennale will bring together in this unique place artists from all over the world to create artistic masterpieces inspired by the soul and spirit of Lake Biwa.

At Biwako Biennale 2007 ~ Spirit of Place: Genius Loci, the third Biwako Biennale, you will enjoy listening closely to the winds whispering across Omi Hachiman, or the waves of Lake Biwa crashing gently upon the shore.

Open your mind, if you dare, to the voices of the guardian spirits who have inhabited and hallowed this place since ancient times. How might the voices of these gentle elders inspire new art, here and now?

- What is Genius Loci? -

The term Genius Loci can refer to the distinctive aspects and characteristics of a particular place, or to an ancient spirit that inhabits and protects a place, or even to an invisible place that exists only in the mind.

In art and literature, Genius Loci is sometimes represented as an elf or fairy-like creature.

The Genius Loci of any particular place is what imbues it with its distinctive atmosphere.

In recent decades, it seems as though millions of people in Japan have devoted themselves to economic development and material profit, often ignoring the existence of the Genius Loci.

Then one day--perhaps today--good people sense that, somehow, the distinctiveness and uniqueness of a special place may be slipping away.

These days, we live in fabricated mass-produced houses, buried alive in mass-produced future artifacts sourced and manufactured in ways so globally distributed that it would be impossible to say definitively from whence they came.

- Where do we belong? -

Many among us have experienced a feeling of "rootlessness" or "floating" or "drifting" that seems to permeate our communities in modern times. It grows stronger in proportion to the proliferation of computers and the endlessly advancing technologies that sleeplessly weave fiber optic tentacles ever more deeply into our lives.

These days, virtually anyone can contact virtually anyone virtually anywhere at virtually anytime via the Internet. Convenient, no doubt--but perhaps also a sentence to live in a virtual prison, seduced by convenience into shrinking from everything physical, everything real.

On occasion, information gleaned from computer networks may allow us to peek into a world formerly unknown to us, and perhaps for a fleeting moment make us think we "know" about something. But it's a shallow knowingness quickly overwhelmed by a deep flood of information that drowns our senses and numbs our souls.

Our world has written itself into a dark science-fiction novel that once was no more than a dream--or a nightmare.

We are endlessly amazed by the expanding scope of human knowledge and the powerful ideas that have diminished time and distance in our lifetimes. But in our amazement, should we not remember to ask ourselves: Have we sacrificed something? Was something lost? A primitive, natural sense that our ancestors once possessed? Something, perhaps, essential to life?

- The Idea of "Place" Wasn't Built in a Day -

It takes a long time to build a city.

Once upon a time people took the time to plan their cities, adapting them to the surrounding environment--geography, mountains, rivers, and hills.

If this seems natural and appropriate, it may only mean that these wise elders were listening to the voice of the Genius Loci, allowing it to guide growth and development.

No fine city or town can be created by ignoring the uniqueness and spirituality of the land on which it is built. Towns developed in accordance with these traditions have survived the ages.

The towns themselves are almost works of art. For example, consider Paris, Venice, Prague. When you visit these cities, perhaps you can feel their powerful energy feeding your body and mind. Why is this so? Because the Genius Loci in these towns lives and breathes, awakening the senses of all who draw near.

- Genius Loci in Japan -

And how about Japan--a country said to have achieved a miraculous post-war recovery? Can people in Japan today still hear the voice of Genius Loci?

Japan has reaped enormous material benefits, derived in large part from technological development. Unlike Europe, which seems to have maintained a strong, spiritual connection to the land, the dissonant chords played by the giant metropolises of Japan paralyze our senses. Even though Japan can boast great material wealth, we find ourselves wondering whether our spiritual life has suffered.

What is the destination of the runaway train that has been powering Japan's economical development on a track seemingly without stops, without stations? Could it be a virtual world with no real home on Earth? Is this the destiny for which Japan longs?

Why not stop for a moment and listen a little more carefully? If we can hear the voice of Genius Loci, perhaps we can regain control before the runaway super express derails--a disaster that could never be undone.

- Biwako Biennale 2007 ~ Spirit of Place: Genius Loci -

Theme: Spirit of Place: Genius Loci

Time: Saturday, September 29 ~ Sunday, November 18, 2007 (planned)

Place: Old town Omi Hachiman City, Shiga Prefecture

Sponsor: NPO Energy Field

Collaboration: The Takeda Seminar of the Hyogo Prefectural Awaji Landscape Planning & Horticulture Academy

Biwako Biennale 2007 will be held at Omi Hachiman, the site of the previous Biwako Biennale (Biwako Biennale 2004 ~ Quantum Leap).

The city of Omi Hachiman was founded by Toyotomi Hidetsugu, a nephew of Toyotomi Hideyoshi, in the latter half of the 16th century. Hidetsugu built a castle on top of Mount Hachiman, and arranged a town at the foot of the mountain as neatly as a checkerboard.

The town was divided into districts categorized by profession. For example, Teppo-cho (gun district), Yakushi-cho (medicine district), Kajiya-machi (blacksmith district), Daiku-machi (carpentry district), Tatamiya-machi (tatami-mat district), Uwai-machi (fisherman district), Suwai-machi (middle district). These district names remain in use to this day.

Hidetsugu also built a moat or waterway around the mountain to define the border of the town. Both ends of the moat lead to Lake Biwa. The waterway proved very effective in promoting commerce in Omi Hachiman.

Since that time, the town has become well-known throughout Japan as the "town of Omi merchants."

The town's merchant class enjoyed prosperity for a very long time. However, the development of the railroads and other modes of transport eventually led to the decline of water traffic on Lake Biwa.

As centralized metropolitan planning methods emerged and grew popular in the modern era, Omi Hachiman became just another small town in Japan, living on the memories of a more glorious past.

On the other hand, since the old town area is located quite far from any railroad station, the area managed to avoid the over-development that has plagued so many Japanese cities in recent years.

William Merrell Vories, an American architect and evangelist, came to Japan at the beginning of the 20th century, and brought great charm and excitement to the town. He stayed in Omi Hachiman through the dark years of war and eventually became a naturalized citizen. Omi Hachiman was far more than Vories' second hometown--it was a town to which he devoted his life. Vories built numerous buildings and houses all over Japan, and was deeply engaged in missionary work. His architecture was Western in style, yet his buildings never disturbed the atmosphere of their location, but rather added charm, grace, and color to the landscape.

Vories must have been in touch with the Genius Loci wherever he went.

Omi Hachiman, which attracted so many people for centuries, remains to this day the "good old Omi Hachiman," while managing to grow with the changes that time unavoidably brings.

At Biwako Biennale 2007, artists will try to express the charms of Omi Hachiman via their masterpieces, in hopes of creating a "new spirit of place" in collaboration with the wonderful people of Omi Hachiman.