Interview With Masaaki Noda

We spoke with Masaaki Noda, a New York-based contemporary artist originally from Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture, who installed his sculpture “Lafcadio Hearn and the Odyssey of an Open Mind” at the Lefkada City Cultural Center in conjunction with the 110th anniversary of the death of Lafkada Lafkada, France.　

This is your fourth sculpture in Greece and your third Koizumi Yakumo-themed work. What prompted your involvement with Greece? 

Your first trip to Greece was in 1995, when you held a solo exhibition in Antibes, France. From Nice, you traveled to Corfu, visiting Koizumi Yakumo’s birthplace, Lefkada, and Delphi. 

In 2003, I held a retrospective at the Shenzhen Art Museum in Guangdong Province, China. My friend Takis Efstathiou noticed the overwhelming response to the exhibition, and asked me to install a work at the European Cultural Center in Delphi. 

I donated the sculpture “Apollo’s Mirror” to the museum in 2005. 

This experience led me to connect with various Greek people through New York, despite having never heard of Greece before. 

What are your thoughts on ancient Greek sculpture and ruins? 

I was overwhelmed the first time I saw them. Over the course of several projects, I gradually became more immersed in them. Greece is my third home after New York. 

Great artists like Michelangelo can be traced back to ancient Greece, and I see the universality of their content in Greece. 

While it may seem reckless to approach a piece with a millennium in mind, this mentality challenges me to explore infinite possibilities, and I believe I must create works that will be a source of pride for future generations. 

What do you pay the most attention to when creating a work? 

I try not to make the same thing twice. I also place importance on viewers thinking about how the work was created. While humans tend to prefer stability, I believe that art is about continually presenting new values without being trapped by restrictive concepts. 

While I focus on my work, I also strive to lead a disciplined life so I can maintain an objective perspective. Being able to view my work with a third-party perspective allows me to make calm decisions. The location where the work is installed is also very important; it must be located in a place that best conveys the message in line with the theme. 

For this reason, I always visit the planned installation location to confirm it. 

Are you influenced by traditional Japanese crafts and culture? 

Crafts and art are different. Traditional crafts are created within certain rules, but I believe art should be free from all constraints. As a Japanese person, Japanese culture and spirit are at the core of my work. However, through repeated reflection, I have come to consider incorporating Japanese traditions into my works and events in my own way. In this context, 

I value how I can establish my own presence and identity. Please tell us about your future activities. I would like to further enhance my creative activities.

 For example, Matsue City, a place associated with Lafcadio Hearn, and Onomichi City, which is next to my hometown of Fukuyama, became sister cities in 2012, so I’d love to be involved in work related to this exchange. 

Also, in preparation for the Tokyo Olympics, I have a plan to launch an art town called “Sample City,” which will create a communication space using artwork as a medium. In other words, it’s a comprehensive project that will bring together local governments and organizations from different industries to turn the city itself into an art space. 

It will be a massive challenge for contemporary art, but I aim to create a space where people can interact through art, regardless of age, gender, or industry, and to create art that will allow us to share the future.

Noda’s installation history in Greece: 2005 Delphi European Cultural Center, “Mirror of Apollo” 2009 American College, Athens, “The Open Spirit of Lafcadio Hearn” 2010 Marathon, “The Spirit of Hermes” 2014 Lefkada, “Lafcadio Hearn and the Odyssey of the Open Spirit”