Tokyo is gearing up for its third version of Art Week Tokyo (AWT), which will take place from November 7–10, 2024, in places where tradition and growing art movement coexist and continue to expand and develop in Tokyo city. With more than 50 institutions and galleries, this year’s event was a full body of work that establishes Tokyo as not only a local art city but one that can be put on the map in terms of contemporary art practice and activity.
The Unmasking of Tokyo’s Art Scene
With dedicated effort and genuine passion, one can expect a unique element of Art Week Tokyo to be in its interaction between the various contemporaries’ practices. The legends of Japanese Good Art as well as contemporary figures who experiment with new media—AWT provides historical and progressive context.
canvas, 200 x 400 cm (quadriptych). © Keiichi Tanaami, courtesy Nanzuka.
It is critical that the meeting focus on Keiichi Tanaami. The master of Japanese pop art is also popular thanks to his surrealistic mind, which remembers and conveys many subjects through the use of a visual language. A major retrospective exhibition of Tanaami titled “Pace Setter for the Times” is about to happen, where the philosopher and artist will also take part. Its theme is to present the relationship between ‘fine art’ and ‘commercial art’, which represents artists’ life cycles. Also, one more performance is planned at the venue where Ei Arakawa-Nash will present a collaborative work with ‘Communities.’ This cross-over of two strikingly different heroes in one environment captures AWT’s main point: it is the meeting point for constant change in existing disciplines.
At the Artizon Museum, Yuko Mohri, who is famous for her original installations that combine living materials with machinery, will hold her first substantial individual exhibition in Tokyo. What has always intrigued Mohri is the idea and visual manifestation in sculptural forms of the invisible forces—naturalistic, technological, or social—and it seems that in her show one will be able to see these forces as impacting how mundane everyday life can be.
Vista congestion gives way to one of the most anticipated Louise Bourgeois exhibitions at the Mori Art Museum. Louise Bourguois is considered one of the most important artists of the 20th century, and her psychological and sculptural experiments have left a mark on the art world. This exhibition, which is her first in Japan in 27 years, will be nothing short of a blockbuster if held, as it will feature pieces that have never been seen in Asia before.
AWT Focus: Asia’s Future Perspectives.
Mami Kataoka, Director of the Mori Art Museum, has been awarded a curatorial honour for directing the exhibition “Earth, Wind, and Fire: Asia’s Vision of Tomorrow,” which is part of the Australian Institute’s attention. The conceptualisation of the ideas displayed in the exhibition focusses on the participants’ inclination towards the ‘elements’ and ‘nature.’ 57 artists and groups participate in this exhibition from Japan, Asia and other parts of the world. Kataoka’s curation goes beyond the American context to also include such countries as Brazil, Indonesia, Korea, Mexico, the Philippines, Taiwan and others, ably harnessing discourse on the future away from nationalism.
The Okura Museum of Art presents the exhibition in a building designed by modern architect Chuta Ito, which has an extensive history of architecture blending the old and the new. Country itself, the first private museum in Japan, contributes to the historical concepts that the angiological model engages in at the projected exhibition.
Ryoko Aoki, a Kyoto-based artist, creates installation art that occupies the in-between territory of drawing and objects, encouraging some contemplation. Heri Dono, an Indonesian artist, creates myth-inspired, myth-creating works, while Taloi Havini from Brisbane, winner of the latest Artes Mundi 10 prize, creates woven pieces relating to the loss and preservation of culture. All of these pieces, as well as postwar photographs of Kikuji Kawada and vivid paper works of Korean artist Haegue Yang, will portray multiple approaches to the theme of elemental forces.
The AWT Focus’s electronic and commercial aspects are one of its most striking features. All of the works, except for the Okura Museum’s collection, are available for purchase through the galleries that exhibit them. This strategy helps to join busy ideas and marketplaces, helping not only in appreciating the beauty of creativity but enabling the market, in art trade also, through AWT.
International Engagement: Tokyo in the World Setting
Even though Art Week Tokyo primarily uses Japan’s art ecosystem, the 2024 Art Week will see a particularly heightened degree of internationalisation, seeking to draw in more foreign artists into its fold. Kour Pour’s “carpet paintings” are displayed in a two-person exhibition at Kotaro Nukaga Gallery, along with Amazonian Uitoto iconography-inspired works on Rember Yahuarcani. This example demonstrates the curatorial ambition of AWT, as it seeks to engage artists who are worlds apart and asks the audience to look for similarities in different cultures.
At Ota Fine Arts, Chen Wei, a Chinese photographer, will exhibit his urban settings in a photographic series that depicts nonfunctional high-rise complexes. At the same time, Roby Dwi Antono, an Indonesian artist who merges street art with Surrealism, will continue to instill visions spun from the clouds made out of colours at Nanzuka allery. All these international artists and local ones, such as Yoshitomo Nara at Blum and Hiroshi Sugito at Tomio Koyama Gallery, testify to the cosmopolitan nature of the AWT programming.
One more highlight on a global scale is the AWT Video platform, which was put together recently by Sohrab Mohebbi, Director of SculptureCenter New York. This video art program’s most notable feature, entitled Between Contrail and Mountains, includes fourteen works by thirteen artists, including young Japanese artists and some internationally practiced artists like Tishan Hsu and Miljohn Ruperto. There has been a growing prominence of video art in the current society, and in light of this, Mohebbi’s selection will speak about the painful past and painful co-existence of people with the outside world.
Art Beyond the Gallery: AWT Bar and Conversations
Art lovers seeking artistic experiences through all five senses can find a temporary area in the AWT Bar that combines architecture and landscape architecture with cuisine and mixology. Elucidated by landscape architect Eiko Tomura, a firm that is now involved in the restoration of the Hirshhorn sculpture garden in Washington, DC, the space will capture Mogul’s off-beaten urbanscapes, enticing visitors to sit and mingle. It is the high-end endorsements of great cuisine fusion with art of cooking, the hypothetical moniker being “food philosophy” by Mr. Miya Enmeiji. Cocktails created by other artist-cum-bartenders, such as Meiro Koizumi or Tabaimo, will also add another lighthearted yet serious aspect to the overall picture.
The ideas that frame Art Week Tokyo will be extended into AWT Talks heard at a symposium bannered by Adriano Pedrosa, curator of the 60th Venice Biennale. The curators Pedrosa, along with Mami Kataoka and Sohrab Mohebbi, will engage in a relevant topic of the day—’transnational visions of contemporary art,’ owing to the geographical expansion of every region in the world. This year’s plays program will also feature a series of round-table talk sessions with practicing curators from various countries, exploring critical burning issues concerning the power of art in society.
Aiming High. Tokyo is a Global Center for Art.
After all, the fact that Art Week Tokyo expands year after year shows how the international art market progresses. Each time, this measurement helps to promote Tokyo as one of the countries active in developing contemporary art and attracts foreign viewpoints; therefore, it turns out to be a genuine melting pot of art professionals and enthusiasts.
In a nutshell, conservators, curators, and all lovers of the arts can probably make peace with the fact that from now on, Art Week Tokyo 2024 is here, period! Art Fair is graduated into a different level seeking its boundaries where trade becomes inclusive and intertwined with the cerebral and multisensory activities. The response to this year’s varied programming suggests that the city is gradually becoming more well known on the international art map, not only for its local works but for the importance of contemporary art, as where TONE Maga will be in the future.
Here is the list of all participants for Art Week Tokyo 2024 across various platforms:
AWT Focus: Earth, Wind, and Fire: Visions of the Future from Asia
Curated by Mami Kataoka
Venue: Okura Museum of Art
Dates: November 7–10, 2024
Participating Artists and Groups (57)
- Busui Ajaw
- Nelo Akamatsu
- Poklong Anading
- Akiko Ando
- Ryoko Aoki
- Takashi Arai
- Lynda Benglis
- Jaeeun Choi
- Yoko Daihara
- Jose Dávila
- Miho Dohi
- Heri Dono
- Shingo Francis
- Asako Fujikura
- Laurent Grasso
- Yuki Harada
- Yutaka Hatta
- Taloi Havini
- Naotaka Hiro
- Leiko Ikemura
- Tomiyuki Kaneko
- Kikuji Kawada
- Taek Sang Kim
- Mariko Kobayashi
- Takuro Kuwata
- Lee Kit
- Josaku Maeda
- Shiro Matsui
- Mit Jai Inn
- Kazuko Miyamoto
- Rikichi Miyanaga
- Miwa Kyusetsu XIII
- Kisho Mukaiyama
- Namika Nakai
- Junko Oki
- Yoshiki Omote
- Marina Perez Simão
- Solange Pessoa
- Sopheap Pich
- Thomas Ruff
- Akane Saijo
- Aki Sasamoto
- Albert Yonathan Setyawan
- Arlene Shechet
- Taro Shinoda
- Kishio Suga
- Shooshie Sulaiman
- Mika Tajima
- Alexander Tovborg
- Shigeo Toya
- Charwei Tsai
- Yuji Ueda
- Eiji Uematsu
- Haegue Yang
- Yee I-Lann
- Ken + Julia Yonetani
- Gozo Yoshimasu
AWT Video: Between Contrail and Mountains
Curated by Sohrab Mohebbi
Venue: SMBC East Tower, Marunouchi
Dates: November 7–10, 2024
Participating Artists (13)
- Edgar Calel
- Ting-Tong Chang
- Naotaka Hiro
- Tishan Hsu
- Ai Iwane
- Tsubasa Kato
- Saori Miyake
- Mika Ninagawa
- Yutaka Nozawa
- Miljohn Ruperto
- Aki Sasamoto
- Atsushi Yamamoto
- Gozo Yoshimasu
These artists and groups represent a diverse range of contemporary practices, from experimental media and performance to ceramics and painting, showcasing an exciting and wide-ranging vision of contemporary art from Asia and beyond.
