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Nio-Project
Sculpture, Installation
2021-2025
“Two ‘Blue Nio’ were presented to the world at Osaka Expo on Oct. 1st and ‘A Future with Blue Nio’ was presented by students from Yokota. and Kyoto and discussed in Talk Sessions with Shishido Shungo (GIAHS), Jikke van Loon (NIO Project) and Sano Haruhito (College of Japanese Architecture Kyoto).
It was a festive moment in the Nio Project that was started by Dutch artist Jikke van Loon after meeting two Japanese temple guardians at the National Gallery (Rijksmuseum) in Amsterdam and had exploded into an artist-in-residence program, high school exchange, regional revitalization and exchange of hearts between people across the globe. Meeting the temple guardians in 2015 Jikke got intrigued by the statues and upon visiting their former home deep in the mountains of Shimane, she felt determined to reconnect the spirit of the guardians (Nio) to the town of Okuizumo Yokota and its people.
Her zeal and passion inspired people in the Netherlands and Japan to come together, rebuild and bring the ancient temple guardians to life using Delf Blue tiles.
Every tile is an artwork all together creating beautiful installation of the Nio with incredible depth and detail connecting people to the cultural heritage of Okuizumo Yokota.
On October 13th the Blue Nio were finally installed on the Iwayaji mountain (
where Nio have stood for 700 years)
and in a live stream in time and space (JIKU) connected to the Nio in the Rijksmuseum of Amsterdam.
In close collaboration with:
Niōmon Foundation (NL), GIA NIO-MON Yokota (JP), OKUTSUMU (JP), Kyoto Architectural College (JP), Yokota Junior High School (JP)
More information: www.nio-project.com
