We are pleased to present "Diffusion of Nature 2025: The Wavering Distance", the first exhibition in two years of the Artist-in-Residence Program in Kumonodaira Mountain Hut (here after AIR).

This project explores the question of what "nature" means to us through the perspectives of 14 different artists who stayed and created their works at Kumonodaira. This is a place located deep in the Northern Alps, the largest mountainous area in Honshu, Japan.

Today, in this time of environmental crisis, we fear "nature" as an unpredictable catastrophe, but we also desire "nature" as a comforting presence in a highly mechanized society. People's attitude toward "nature" is always shifting. Each era, region, and individual has its own complex story of memories, interests, and values concerning nature. So, what does "nature" mean to us?

To explore this question, the exhibition focuses on the idea of "distance."
Peace, rights, freedom, cooperation, diversity, and such concepts have arisen when the unconscious "balance that ought to be" is disrupted. The distance that lies between the "ideal balance" and "reality" as an unknown number accelerates our thoughts. We might say that artistic expression is part of the effort of trying to close this distance. With this image in mind, we have titled the exhibition "The Wavering Distance".

"Nature" is one concept that came from the difference between what we thought the "ideal balance" should be and what reality was.
The word "nature" only began to take on its modern meaning in the late 18th century after the Industrial Revolution. As humans' living environment was rapidly transformed by the technologies and systems that they created, we began to consider what "nature" was with a new sense of tension.
It was a time of turmoil and prosperity, with the loss of shared values such as old cultures and landscapes. We lost natural resources, experienced successive wars, suffered pandemics. We lost stable lifestyle models in exchange for greater convenience.
Behind the uneasiness towards "humans", we began to see through the multifaceted aspects of "nature", our nostalgic friend, absolute ruler, and means of life. One might say that "nature" is not a tangible object, but rather a concept fostered as unknown quantity, like x or y, in an equation for examining the world that exists between us and our environment.

Geological studies have shown that environmental changes have caused many mass extinctions on Earth in the past, each time upsetting the balance of the ecosystem.
In such cases, we assume that the meteorites that wiped out the dinosaurs and promoted the rise of mammals are also "nature". If we see "nature" as "uncontrollable", then it will become a more meaningful concept.
In this age known as the Anthropocene, the most uncontrollable "nature" may be us humans ourselves.

Kumonodaira was once called "the last unexplored region" because of its mysterious, garden-like setting hidden deep in the mountains. In recent years, however, the ecosystem has been changing drastically. This is because the snow season has become shorter due to rapid global warming. The habitats of alpine plants that survived the Ice Age are disappearing, along with the landscapes they created. Eventually, the land will be swallowed up by dark forest bands.
However, this is only one aspect of "nature". In a world where the word "nature" is so overused, what kind of distance are we trying to overcome through "nature"?

In this exhibition, artists who have encountered the land of Kumonodaira seek to describe "nature," which fluctuates between the sense of feelings and concepts we have already internalized, through the expression of sounds, words, shapes, colors, bodies, and spaces.

We hope that their perspectives will become points of reference for the search for "nature" and serve as guideposts for people to walk with joy through a chaotic world.