Occupying almost twice the area of last year's event, and with more galleries set up and side-events being staged than ever before in its Tokyo International Forum venue, this year's Art Fair Tokyo will almost be unrecognizable to regular visitors — let alone anyone returning for the first time since its first iteration back in 1992.
Back then, the event was known as International Contemporary Art Festival, Japan (NiCAF), and, as that name suggests, it focused on contemporary art. These days the fair is characterized by its inclusion of everything from antiquities and antiques to 20th-century masters to work by the youngest and brightest in the local scene.
But perhaps the biggest change to occur since 1992 lies in the event's purpose. As Hozu Yamamoto, a director at Tokyo Gallery and a long-time participant in the fair, explained at a press conference recently, "In the mid-'90s, art was considered a hobby, so the objective was simply to give people the opportunity to see all sorts of artworks." Now, he continued, it is all about getting people to "buy art, to take the artworks home with them."