About Us

Isobe Yukihisa Memorial Echigo Tsumari Kiyotsu Soko Museum of Art (SoKo) was launched in 2015 in a renovated space that was a former gymnasium in the closed Kiyotsukyo Primary School. It is based upon an alternative concept of a museum as being a place for "presenting and storing artworks". As one of the gateways to the Echigo-Tsumari region as well as a genuine place for presenting large-scale contemporary artworks and sculptures, the museum received many visitors during the 6th Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale 2015. We have been working on the renovation of the school building in order to expand the space for pursuing this objective. This 'warehouse museum', with its agenda of promoting the exchange of artworks between 'the city' and 'the region,' offers a positive solution through a matching of two difficult but complementary issues: the first being that of many artists who present their artworks in the big cities face when seeking storage spaces for their work; and the second being the pressing problem of the increasing numbers abandoned houses and closed schools in the region. We aim to establish stronger ties with the community, offering this place as a venue for selling local produces and organising community events. This facility will be an main institusion of this area. New part of exhibition spaces has been adding to school building section and it's renewal open with a lot of consigned works by Yukihisa Isobe. We are introducing those new collections and give a chance to vistor know the place in Echigo Tsumari : their life, their culture and information of the geographical features.

Since 2000, Isobe has been presenting artworks visualizing the characteristics of specific places, such as the series of four artworks featuring the Shinanogawa river including "Where Has the River Gone," as well as "Monument of Mudslide," and has been deeply engaged with the festival, helping to provide its conceptual backbone. This new wing of the warehouse museum will be a place to "present and store" his consigned artworks. As the framework of the 'warehouse museum' is developed, we expect that the museum will become one of the key hub facilities which will attract many visitors.