Skilando

Skiland is a vast concrete building in the hills of the Japanese island of Shikoku. Built as a grass-skiing resort, it is now a crumbling trout-farm and a hotel, inhabited just by the couple who own it. I was overwhelmed by its character. Like a tired giant Skiland rests at the end of a path leading into the woods. If I were a filmmaker, I’d make a moody documentary about it, I thought. Then I remembered (and each time it is a revelation to me) that an artist may be whatever he decides to be. Scientist, philosopher, farmer. Pretending to be a filmmaker is not even such a far stretch. I joined a documentary look at the building with the traditional Japanese puppeteering art of bunraku.