Tokyo is set to host its first large-scale urban art festival, Arte Tokyo, running from October 10 to December 31. The event originated during the COVID-19 pandemic, when city officials recognized the vital role of art in daily life, shifting perceptions from viewing it as a luxury to considering it essential social infrastructure.
At the heart of Arte Tokyo is the “Tokyo Atlas International Art Exhibition,” scheduled from October 10 to December 20. This expansive exhibition will transform three waterfront districts along Tokyo Bay—Daiba, Tennoz Isle, and Aomi—into open-air galleries showcasing contemporary art. Spanning over 750,000 square meters, the exhibition is one of the largest outdoor art events of its kind globally and aims to explore new urban possibilities through site-specific, experimental works.
Each district holds historical significance shaped by centuries of development. Daiba, once a coastal defense position from the late Edo Period, has evolved into a symbol of modern urban growth. Tennoz Isle, formerly a warehouse area, now serves as a creative hub, while Aomi functions as a center for shipping, logistics, and technology. The exhibition’s visual design reflects each district’s unique heritage as it merges history with contemporary artistic expression.
Curators Akira Tatehata, director of the Kyoto Art Center, and Akiko Miki, director of the Naoshima New Museum of Art, lead the exhibition, each overseeing different locations with a shared vision. Their approach emphasizes intuitive engagement, allowing the character of each site to shape the viewer’s experience without relying heavily on explanatory signage. The roster includes internationally acclaimed artists alongside emerging talents, reflecting a broad spectrum of contemporary art trends.
In Daiba Park, Tatehata highlights the area’s latent “wildness,” a sense of untamed potential embedded in the cityscape. One notable installation by artist Leiko Ikemura is a six-meter bronze sculpture of a rabbit-bodhisattva emerging from the sea near Odaiba Marine Park, symbolizing hope and possibility for the urban environment. On Tennoz Isle, artist Keita Mori will create an expansive thread-based wall work on the site of Isle Shinagawa, a reclaimed industrial area now dedicated to cultural use. Meanwhile, in Aomi’s Telecom Center Building, two balloon sculptures by the late Yayoi Kusama will be displayed together for the first time, inside the building’s 37-meter-high atrium.
Further along the waterfront at Aomi Minami Port Park, an active port area, Miki curates an experimental program reflecting the site’s dynamic and somewhat chaotic energy. This area will host unconventional exhibits such as “Goat’s Eyes,” a sustainability-focused project by Tsuyoshi Ozawa's laboratory at Tokyo University of the Arts, which involves live goats on site to explore waste-free art models. French artist Abraham Poincheval will inhabit a large bottle installation, contemplating themes of privacy and public space. The park’s underground parking structure has been transformed into a venue for sound, light, and moving-image works by artists including Scottish Katie Paterson and Thai Kawita Vatanajyankur.
The three districts, though distinct and physically separate, provide visitors with manageable routes for exploration, fostering repeated engagement as the exhibition adapts to changing weather and seasons. Tokyo Atlas reflects wider global concerns, addressing post-pandemic reflections and evolving notions of urban life, and aspires to establish itself as an enduring cultural destination.
Through this ambitious initiative, Tokyo invites residents and visitors alike to discover new dimensions of the city’s waterfront, transforming familiar urban spaces into a living map that reveals Tokyo’s scale, diversity, and evolving identity.