"TOGETHER" at DESIGNART Tokyo 2022

DESIGNART Tokyo 2022 is back with this year's theme of "TOGETHER". This fair is one of Japan’s largest design and art festivals where leading creators from art, design, interior design, and fashion converge in Tokyo to hold exhibitions across the city from 21 - 30 October 2022. The entire district will be turned into a museum, bridging invaluable encounters and inspirations through interaction with creators. 

DESIGNART Tokyo believes that the time has come for Asia, with its strong economic growth rate and emerging cultural centre, to take the lead in terms of creativity and technology. To this end, the fair will present DESIGNART GALLERY, a collective exhibition focusing on Asian creators, as a stepping stone to a new platform for building more friendly and progressive relationships with other Asian countries. The exhibition will be held at the newly established Hz, an event space with an eye-catching glass facade in the cultural hub of Shibuya.

The Taipei-based creative practice messagingleaving, led by Chialing Chang (UNDER 30), will present the lighting and mirror collections that uncover diverse expressions of brass and stainless steel. Karyn Lim (UNDER30) will be exhibiting Transformation Bags, a play on geometry to create sculptural forms that can transform into flat objects. In the "mitate" project by quantum × Stratasys Japan, images of unique bowls were generated by seeing everything as a bowl with an AI and 3D data of bowls based on the images were designed and produced using 3D printing. 

Hibiya Okuroji is located between Hibiya and Ginza, where the impressive brick bridge arches are still in use after more than 100 years. The 300-meter-long space will host a variety of artworks, from interior design to works by cutting-edge artists. The Berlin Wall online project, organised by DESIGNART Tokyo's UNDER 30 artist Takaya Mic Mitsunaga, will appear under the title BERLIN WALL TOKYO. UNDER 30 artist Nina Nomura will exhibit Life Through Holes, a work that questions the true richness of the relationship between objects and people by filling the surface of objects with tiny holes. Sohma Furutate will exhibit MASS -2022-. The forms that emerge from this work capture all the elements of surface transitions, depth, and shading. 

Manufacturing and sustainability initiatives are being proactively taken worldwide in various fields to achieve sustainable development goals towards a sustainable society. In addition to developing materials and technologies, building relationships with partners and educating the next generation are likely to be the keys to producing popular high-demand products. Considering this, DESIGNART Tokyo will present the NEXT CIRCULATION, a sustainability and technology-themed exhibition featuring initiatives by leading corporate brands and creators as well as a selection of inspiring exhibits that contemplate "beyond" recycling and upcycling. Satoshi Itasaka, a designer in the fields of architecture, product design, and art, who also works on upcycling, will take charge of the spatial design. 

The series sea is an effort by ambi to realise the charm of Studio Relight's activities through design using recycled glass from waste fluorescent lamps that have been processed by Studio Relight's parent company, Sawaya Co. The glass is moulded from a lump of glass to maximise the uniqueness of the colour and bubbles of recycled glass. 

About DESIGNART Tokyo
DESIGNART Tokyo began in 2017 as a design and art festival based on the theme “INTO THE EMOTIONS”. Eminent creatives from around the world converge in Tokyo, one of the world’s most culturally diverse cities, to hold various exhibitions across the city and in various genres, including interior design, art, fashion, technology, and food.

One of the major features of the event is one’s ability to enjoy numerous exhibitions while moving through the city and, should sparks fly, even buy pieces on the spot. The event has been known to be the catalyst of unforeseen chemical reactions between creative professionals in Japan and those hailing from abroad, who join up for new projects or otherwise launch their ambitions into the wider world.

With sustainability being the norm and questions arising about the responsibilities of the creator and those of the user, creative crafts and manufacturing will be a driving force that supports society into the future. To experience daily life enriched with long-lived designs and art—connections for such irreplaceable encounters and wonderment abound without borders when DESIGNART TOKYO turns the city into a veritable museum.

Dates: 21 - 30 October 2022
Locations: Omotesando, Gaienmae, Shibuya, Harajuku, Roppongi, Hiroo, Ginza
Click here to find out more about DESIGNART Tokyo

All images are courtesy of DESIGNART Toyko