Man Rock V

Made with stone from the Shinano River

Man Rock V by Antony Gormley is an art piece that was commissioned for the Echigo Tsumari Art Triennale in 2024, but you can still see it this year. It manages to feel both simple and powerful at the same time, and the piece was made with a local stonemason, carving a figure into a natural stone from the Shinano River. It sits inside a small structure shaped like a shrine's chozu-ya, surrounded by trees and quiet. Over time, the stone is meant to weather and blend back into the landscape, so it does make you think less about art as an object and more about how art and nature can intertwine.