longstay2015

Application Overview

PARADISE AIR currently seeks artists who wish to create work while residing at PARADISE AIR in Matsudo City, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, as part of the 2015 LONG STAY Program.

PARADISE AIR currently seeks artists who wish to create work while residing at PARADISE AIR in Matsudo City, Chiba Prefecture, Japan, as part of the 2015 LONG STAY Program.

s and Samurai who worked to expand the Shogunate’s Imperial Fief – Matsudo flourished as an independent city untethered by feudalistic growth. As an inn town, the prosperity of Matsudo stemmed from the foot traffic of the Mitokaido highway, and from the nautical trade that bustled along the Edo River, but, most importantly, Matsudo has long been fabled for exceptional townsfolk. The people of Matsudo remain praised by visitors for their remarkable hospitality and obliging nature.

PARADISE AIR is an artist-in-residence program created in 2013 to revitalize Matsudo in light of its history as an inn town. Rakuen, the love-hotel-turned-pachinko-parlor across the street from Matsudo Station, operated for many years without any business operations on its top floor until Hamatomo Kanko Co., Ltd. offered up two of those unused rooms to begin PARADISE AIR. Two programs were borne from this initiative: LONG STAY, in which two foreign artists per year are hosted in Rakuen as they create work that engages the city of Matsudo; and SHORT STAY, a “one night, one art” program which encourages artists to stop through Matsudo to present or perform their work in exchange for lodging.

Program Theme: “PRESENT”

This year’s Long Stay Program will continue last year’s tradition of hosting one artist from abroad. The current theme, “PRESENT,” encourages artists to incorporate regional resources into a gift for local people in the city.

Program Theme

“PRESENT”

Sponsor: Matsudo Community Planning Council (“MATSUKAI”)
Support: Japanese Ministry of Culture (As part of the 2015 Dissemination of Japanese Culture and Measures for International Cooperation through International Cultural Exchange Program)
Sponsor: Hamatomo Kanko Co., Ltd.