Roppongi Art Night 2022" will be held in the town of Roppongi from September 17 to 19. After being postponed and cancelled due to the spread of the new coronavirus, Roppongi Art Night will be held for the first time in three years. Here we will give you an overview of this year's event, and teach you how to enjoy Roppongi Art Night, even if you are attending for the first time.

The Roppongi Art Triennale is an art festival held only a few days a year in Roppongi, an area dotted with art museums and cultural centers such as the National Art Center, Tokyo, Mori Art Museum, and Suntory Museum of Art, where the whole town is filled with the spirit of art. The event was first held in 2009, but was regrettably postponed and cancelled last year and the year before to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.

The 2022 event will be held for three days from September 17 to 19 (some works will be exhibited in advance). The town of Roppongi will be dyed with more art than usual, both real and digital.

Roppongi Art Night will be held at seven main venues: Roppongi Hills and Tokyo Midtown, where the main program will be held, Mori Art Museum, Suntory Museum of Art, 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT, The National Art Center, Tokyo, and Roppongi Shopping Arcade. Installations and other exhibits will be displayed at each of these locations, and programs will be developed in cooperation with each other.

In addition to these locations, objects and installations by up-and-coming artists will appear in various places around town. As you move from base to base, there are art experiences lurking along the way. Many of the artworks are not only for viewing but also for participation, and with the exception of a few programs, viewing is free of charge, so even those who do not usually have much contact with art can casually experience art while having fun.

Even if you don't know about the programs in detail, the best part of Roppongi Art Night is that you are sure to encounter art somewhere along the way and feel like you are exploring the area.

The theme of this year's festival is "Find the wonder of art in this city! is the theme for this year's event, which will feature about 70 artists participating in both real and online performances, and about 100 diverse programs over the three-day period.

The main program of the event will be a giant objet d'art of "Doraemon" created by Takashi Murakami, one of Japan's leading contemporary artists. A 10-meter-tall Doraemon, in collaboration with Murakami's eponymous motif of "flowers," will appear at the Roppongi Hills Arena. A 4 meter tall Doraemon will also appear in Tokyo Midtown.

Also on display this year are Doraemon works by 12 artists curated by Murakami. Visitors will be able to see the innovative images of Doraemon created by emerging artists at four locations: Roppongi Hills Arena, Tokyo Midtown, The National Art Center, Tokyo, and Lapilos Roppongi. Check out the main work by Takashi Murakami as well as other Doraemon works and find your favorite "new Doraemon" image.

Of course, there are many other things to see and do. It is difficult to tell you about all of them, so I will first introduce some of the programs that will take place at the two locations, Roppongi Hills and Tokyo Midtown.

In addition to the main program, Roppongi Hills will feature seven citywide installations, including the Roppongi Hills Arena and West Walk, as well as "Wave," a daisy balloon made of more than 10,000 stick-shaped balloons, and a giant kaleidoscope that visitors can pedal to create a 2-meter kaleidoscope of the surrounding landscape. Yusuke Iguchi's "KALEIDOSCAPE," an interactive exhibit in which visitors pedal to create a kaleidoscope of the surrounding landscape, and other surprising artworks will appear throughout the museum this year as well.

Session.", a collaboration of footsteps and ice sounds by ice-dyeing artist SAYAKA ASAI and tap artist Lily, who both use a unique ice-dyeing technique, and Makuta's "Devo Luchi", a fusion of Indonesian shadow puppets with digital video and noise ambient music. Live performances with video will also be featured.

Meanwhile, seven three-dimensional and two-dimensional works will be exhibited in Tokyo Midtown in addition to three citywide installations throughout the building. Among them is Takahisa Furuya's "Facial Identification by Artificial Intelligence," a performance in which he improvises a neck figure of a viewer using clay. Other highlights include "ROCK'N," a collage by magma on the theme of the "six senses.

Outside of the central facilities, for example, two artworks by Sebastian Masuda, an artist who has captivated the world with his "kawaii" (cute) worldview, will be exhibited at the Roppongi Crossing, which is a central feature of Roppongi.

The series of works entitled "Polychromatic Skin" is based on the concept that "colorful blood runs beneath our skin," and expresses the desire to break through and liberate various stereotypes and divides in the world, such as gender, race, religion, age, and national borders. The "Blood" is a work that expresses the desire to break through and liberate various stereotypes and divides in the world, including gender, race, religion, age and national borders. In particular, the soaring "Polychromatic Skin -Gender Tower-" will change the view of the Roppongi Crossing. The same series of works will also appear on the exterior walls of the Roa Building, adding even more color to Roppongi, a town of mixed cultures with cute and colorful artwork.

Roppongi West Park will be transformed into "Yell for Art! On the 17th and 18th, eight artists selected from the "Yell for Art! Tokyo Project," will be presenting live painting sessions on the 17th and 18th. This is a rare opportunity to see professional artists painting live. This project is also recommended for families with children. Roppongi Art Night will also feature installations by three artists participating in the project.

Some of the works have been on view in advance since early September, prior to the opening of the exhibition. Please check the official website for more detailed information, including exhibition and performance times.

In previous years, Roppongi Art Night has been an all-night event, but this year there will be no late-night program in order to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus. Instead, the duration of the event has been changed from two days to three days, allowing visitors to enjoy the exhibited works for a longer period than in previous years. (Note, however, that many of the programs will end at 6:00 p.m. on the 19th, the last day of the exhibition!)

In addition, a "Roppongi Art Night Digital" program commemorating the real event is being actively transmitted through the official Roppongi Art Night website and the official YouTube channel "RAN TV" from September 3. The programs will include a number of video works, as well as a talk by former Mori Art Museum Director Fumio Nanjo, who served as the Roppongi Art Night Executive Committee Chairman from the inaugural event in 2009 to the last one. The event is designed for those who cannot wait for the real event, as well as for those who for various reasons cannot make it to the real event, to enjoy the atmosphere of the Roppongi Art Night.

Although not an all-night event as in previous years, this special event allows visitors to view works that are open to the public late until 10 pm. And the way to enjoy Roppongi Art Night is to immerse yourself in the art, feeling as if the entire town were a museum as you circulate from one artwork to another. With so much to see and do, it is easy to get caught up in just viewing the art, but since this is a great opportunity, I hope you will take the time to enjoy lunch and coffee breaks along the way, enjoy some shopping, and make the most of the time from day to night to fully enjoy Roppongi's sights and sounds.

You can also read the official guidebook, which can be downloaded from the official website, and carefully examine what you want to see before you visit, or you can venture out on an art adventure without detailed information, just like the concept of this year's event, "Explore the wonders of art in this town! It is also a good idea to embark on an art adventure in the spirit of the concept of this exhibition, "Explore the wonders of art in this city! There is a truly wide range of programs in addition to those introduced here, so this will definitely be a three-day weekend where anyone can immerse themselves in art!

Roppongi Art Night Official Website
https://www.roppongiartnight.com/2022/