In its own quiet way, Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions was one of the standout art events of 2009.
Organized by the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography (SYABI), that inaugural edition of the festival — also known as Yebizo (an amalgam of Yebisu and eizo, the Japanese word for image or video) — included rare works of pioneering media art, including Andy Warhol's black-and-white screen tests of members of his coterie, an installation by the Canadian collective General Idea, and live performances by young Japanese artists such as Tetsuya Umeda. During the event's 10-day run, an estimated 27,000 people visited SYABI, which is tucked away in a corner of the Garden Place complex in Ebisu.
Supported by the metropolitan government's Tokyo Culture Creation Project, Yebizo will return for a second edition on Feb. 19. Directed by SYABI curator Keiko Okamura, who oversaw the previous edition, this year's festival takes "Searching Songs" as its theme and will feature works and projects by more than 80 artists, filmmakers and performers.