KYOTO –

What goes through your head when you look at contemporary art? Standing in front of, say, Damien Hirst's shark in formaldehyde ("Is this art or taxidermy?"), Tracey Emin's bed ("Anybody could do that"), Jeff Koon's giant balloon-like poodles ("Kitsch," or "preemptive kitsch," as one critic called them) or Takashi Murakami's superflat, supercolorful creations ("Cute . . . and kitsch").

None of these works, or artists, will be on show at the inaugural Parasophia, Kyoto's first foray into staging a major international contemporary arts festival, but that's a good thing. First, let's return to that question of what goes through a viewer's head when he or she looks at a piece of art. Parasophia artistic director Shinji Kohmoto wants to avoid the age-old canard of what actually constitutes art. Instead, he wants to focus on the cultural aspect.

"For Parasophia it's not necessary to discuss whether it is art or not," he tells The Japan Times. Rather than the subject, he adds, the focus should be on the cultural productions of our age. That's why the event is officially called Parasophia: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture 2015.

Kohmoto worked at the National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto for nearly 30 years before he retired from the position of chief curator in 2010. He readily accepts that when it comes to contemporary art, people will surely, and most likely silently, question what they are seeing.

"It is important to encourage discussion," Kohmoto says. "Artworks can be read in many ways, so the process to find the different layers is a very exciting and intellectual one for the viewer.

"I want to encourage people to think about something that he or she is uncomfortable with, or disagrees with. I want to encourage them to think why (they feel that way)."

There definitely won't be a shortage of work that could cause head-scratching. A final total of 38 artists from disciplines that range from performance to painting are being shown at a host of venues throughout this compact city. As to the question of what "art" is, perhaps that's pointless — but it remains persistent. It may be better to ask why art matters. Parasophia's organizers hope the event will be an arena to investigate this.

The idea to stage an international contemporary arts festival in Kyoto was conceived by Mikio Hase, a prominent businessman in the city, who wanted to create "a platform, or laboratory of thinking, like the Venice Biennale." During a lengthy incubation period, spent seeking financial backers (the festival budget is ¥572 million funded via a mixture of public and private money) Kohmoto was asked to be artistic director.

For a city drowning in beautiful world heritage sites, the move to focus on abstract contemporary art may come as a surprise to some, and it could be a hard sell.

"Of course we cannot avoid the heritage of this historic city, but we wanted to create a platform of future assets, Kohmoto says. "If we just admire our heritage it is a style of consumption, so we wanted to have a laboratory to create a new heritage, new assets for the future."

The nearly 40 artists are drawn mainly from Japan, Asia, Europe and North America. Compared to festivals like Germany's Documenta and the Venice Biennale, the roster is substantially smaller. The difference — or distinction — is reflected in the festival's name, "Parasophia," a portmanteau of the Latin "para," meaning "distinct from" and "beyond," and "sophia" meaning "wisdom" or "scholarship." The name echoes the festival's message: This is a event of learning, simultaneously similar and different to others of its ilk.

Among those exhibiting at Parasophia are sound artist Susan Philipsz, winner of the 2010 Turner Prize; New York-based Chinese artist Cai Guo-Qiang, winner of the Golden Lion at the 1999 Venice Biennale; and South African artist William Kentridge, a recipient of the Kyoto Prize in 2010.

"They (the participating artists) are all over 30, there's not many young people," Kohmoto says when it's noted that fresh talent seems to have been overlooked. "I need a style that corresponds to international art-industry standards."

Tate Modern director Chris Dercon, who also serves on the Parasophia advisory panel, says via email that Kohmoto has "won very difficult and demanding artists" for Parasophia.

"Shinji has a long-standing reputation as a very curious and precise curator," Dercon says. "He has a worldwide network and does not eschew a critical view on the 'visual production' of the current art world. His selection of art and artists for Parasophia shows (this).

"Yet he was also courageous to select relatively unknown ones such as Nairy Baghramian, Ana Torfs or Brandt Junceau. And he dares to take risks by inviting the Saudi doctor Ahmed Mater."

Mater, who is both an artist and a doctor, will be presenting a film that captures the physical changes afoot in the Saudi Arabian city of Mecca. The footage was taken by immigrant workers and distilled by Mater as part of an ongoing project to portray the transformation of Islam's holiest city from a perspective not readily seen or heard.

"The fact that these artists accepted a long preparation time and a challenging location such as Kyoto is proof of the respect they have for Kohmoto and his staff," Dercon says.

From 2013, as part of its Open Research Program, Parasophia has been inviting exhibiting artists and key figures in the art world to come to Kyoto in order to engage in a conversation about what Parasophia would become.

"Through this experience many of the artists conceived new ideas," Kohmoto says. "They said, 'I want to make new work through this experience of having visited (Kyoto).' "

Philipsz visited Kyoto twice, traversing the city by bicycle, which was how she came upon Demachiyanagi, a confluence of rivers in the north of the city. It's also a scenic communal space that, come cherry blossom season, will be packed with locals bedded down on blue tarpaulin sheets, drinking and eating under a blanket of pink blooms.

"I was really inspired by the place where the Kamo and Takano rivers meet, where you can walk across the riverbed on stepping stones," Phillipsz says via email. "Being able to stand in the middle of the river, listening to the sound of the water as it trickles through the bedrock, was particularly magical."

Philipsz's sound installation draws inspiration from the shrine maid Izumo no Okuni, the originator of kabuki. Okuni was a performance artist ahead of her time (17th century). Along with a troupe of raggle-taggle dancers, she would perform quotidian dramas in the dry riverbeds of Kyoto.

"I would like to echo this tradition of performance and song with an immersive sound installation that recalls these outcast and forgotten dancers," Philipsz says.

German duo Franz Hoefner and Harry Sachs, who go by Hoefner/Sachs, are also creating a site-specific work, close to Kyoto Station. Hoefner jokingly compared the unglamorous site to the Guantanamo Bay military prison, with its high fences and locked gates. The paradox is the city has effectively sealed off a public space.

Through their large-scale jungle gym-like installation, Hoefner and Sachs want to draw attention to the heritage of the site — a former residential area of the buraku, the feudal-era outcast class — and suggest ways in which the space could be used: as a sort of playground or recreational area, for all ages, using materials gathered from the area and decorated with potted plants — echoing the local style of gardening in confined spaces.

This is part of what could make Parasophia special: Taking the art beyond the gallery and into drab places that many have forgotten, but where life continues.

The bulk of the works will be indoors, though, split between the primary sites of the Museum of Modern Art, the Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art (one of the oldest museums in Japan) and the Museum of Kyoto, in the heart of downtown Kyoto. Tate Director Dercon said he is eager to see what British artist Simon Fujiwara will be exhibiting. Suffice to say, Fujiwara's installation combines elements of autobiography in the same way as Emin's "My Bed" does, with far more subtlety. It also has a strong connection to Japan.

Japanese artists, based in Japan and overseas, also feature strongly in Parasophia's lineup. Kyoto City University of Arts graduate Yasumasu Morimura, who is known for painting himself into famous artworks, will be exhibiting at the Museum of Kyoto. Koki Tanaka, originally from Tochigi but based in Los Angeles, represented Japan at the 2013 Venice Biennale; for Parasophia, he will be showing a new piece that he created in Kyoto.

In the absence of any unifying theme, Parasophia provides spaces for conversations — or a laboratory, in Kohmoto-speak. And just as with laboratories, who knows what outcomes may arise from the conversations within them.

Parasophia: Kyoto International Festival of Contemporary Culture will take place from March 7 to May 10 at various locations in Kyoto. For more information, visit www.parasophia.jp.