Encounter and Engage with Diverse Art in the Rinkai Fukutoshin Area: "ARTBAY TOKYO Art Festival 2023" Held
Held from Friday, September 15 to Sunday, September 24, 2023, for ten days, the "ARTBAY TOKYO Art Festival 2023" takes place in the Rinkai Fukutoshin (Tokyo Bay) area. With the theme "CIRCULATION ~The City, People, and World in Motion~," the festival offers programs across multiple venues that explore the relationship between the city and its inhabitants, coexistence with nature, and the cyclical nature of time.
At the main venue, the Plaza of Stone and Light within Symbol Promenade Park (main photo), curator Yoshidayamar and the architectural collective "GROUP," along with collaborator Okutama Art Research Institute, have designed a stage for the exhibition.
At the heart of the exhibition stage, shipping containers—symbols of the Rinkai Fukutoshin landscape and essential to modern life—emerge. Emerging contemporary artists utilize these containers to create "Biotope Circles" (places where the breath of living things can be heard) from their unique perspectives and techniques.
At the venue, by installing the XR app "STYLY" and viewing the Rinkai Fukutoshin landscape through a smartphone at points with QR codes, giant red balls continuously spill out and dynamically race across the plaza. At the Plaza of Stone and Light, the green illustrations on the containers seem to connect the real and virtual worlds.
At the Plaza of Flowers opposite the Plaza of Stone and Light (photo, left), a monumental work by artist Yu Nagaba, known for his warm brushstrokes depicting the daily lives of city dwellers, is on display. After enjoying the physical artwork, scanning the QR code and holding up a smartphone brings the illustrated people and cityscape to life before your eyes. It's enjoyable not just to view, but to feel as if you've become an inhabitant of a new world.
Even more intriguing was the "AI Suitcase" (photo, right), a suitcase-shaped robot developed by the National Museum of Nature and Science and others, designed to navigate visually impaired individuals to their destinations.
When a destination is indicated, the suitcase moves autonomously to provide directions. For this event, two experience programs were prepared, assuming "city walks" connecting facilities with public transportation: a "City Navigation Experience" linking the National Museum of Nature and Science to the Yurikamome Line's "Telecom Center Station" ticket gates, and a "Museum Navigation Experience" for freely exploring the museum's first floor.
Additionally, at the "TV Asahi Construction Site," a 25-meter-long mural titled "Tokyo Bay Palette" created by illustrator Gako is exhibited on the temporary hoarding. Furthermore, the surface pattern "Characters on the surface," an abstraction of the metaverse idol "Meta Ship," adorns the mural in front of the public restrooms. Even seemingly sterile locations like construction sites and public restrooms are transformed into vibrant environments through the presence of art with strong subcultural elements.
In the "Dream Plaza" within Symbol Promenade Park, a colorful stage set, utilizing discarded materials from TV program art departments, is installed, offering a variety of activities.
"ARTBAY TOKYO Art Festival 2023" allows visitors to contemplate CIRCULATION—the concept of cycles—while engaging with diverse art in an open-air setting.
Why not visit this autumn?
Art Project Executive Committee
https://artbayfes2023.com/