In the wake of the recently held Art Fair Tokyo, Kyoto is following up with its own alternative in Art Kyoto. Organizers will, however, eschew the international art fair model seen in Tokyo and do what Kyoto does best — represent Japan.
Keigo Ishibashi, a member of Art Kyoto's executive committee, says he wants to flip the way things have been done until now. Rather than sending contemporary Japanese art to the international market to make its debut, he wants to show the best that is being produced here and use that to cultivate a domestic market.
"The event is not conceived of as an art fair at all," says Ishibashi, who is also director of the Gallery Neutron. "It's more of a domestic offering that aspires to internationalism," seeking not merely "art marketing but the creation of a domestic art economy."