Installation view of Daniel Crooks’ Static No. 12 (Seek Stillness in Movement) (2008) as installed at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography for the 3rd Yebizu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions, 2011. Photo ART iT.
While the tendency across Asia has been to think big when it comes to orchestrating cultural spectacles, Tokyo’s annual Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions has been since its founding in 2008 a potential model for a limited, small-scale approach.
Also known as “Yebizo” and dedicated to media art, the festival is previewing its third edition Feb 17 as the centerpiece of an art-filled week in Tokyo, and opens to the public Feb 18. Hosted and organized by the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography (Syabi) in the city’s Ebisu neighborhood, Yebizo was initiated as part of the metropolitan government’s ambitious Tokyo Culture Creation Project, which over the past three years has channeled funding into a variety of art and culture related projects ranging from exhibitions to “art nights,” lectures and workshops. Running for only 10 days, Yebizo can be thought of as a “mini-biennale,” with an international line-up of artists, film screenings and performances compressed into a fraction of the typical biennale time span.
Installation view of Superflex’s Flooded McDonalds (2009) as installed at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography for the 3rd Yebizu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions, 2011. Photo ART iT.
This year’s edition takes the theme “Daydream Believer!!,” and is again directed by Syabi curator Keiko Okamura, who has overseen the previous two editions as well. In her curatorial statement, Okamura writes that her intent is to use the metaphor of daydreams – and the overlaps they represent between fantasy and reality, revery and consciousness – as a means to investigate the power of images in the age of electronic media. As with previous years, Okamura has divided the festival into two primary sections, an exhibition and a screening program. On display in the exhibition section will be works by artists including Cao Fei, Harun Farocki, Chikara Matsumoto, Jan Švankmajer and Apichatpong Weerasethakul. Many of these same artists reappear in the screening program, alongside curated presentations of short films and video such as “South by Southeast: Australasian Video Art,” “Re-collection: ‘Restored Films’ from the Planet Film Archive” and screenings of Japanese 1960s and contemporary independent cinema. Also scheduled are offsite projects, live events and a series of “lounge talks” at Syabi by participating artists. The festival has also reached out to nearby art venues including the galleries and art-themed bars in the NADiff a/p/a/r/t complex as well as MA2 Gallery and the NPO Arts Initiative Tokyo.
The 3rd Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions, “Daydream Believer!!,” opens to the public February 18 and continues through February 27.
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