The off-kilter odyssey of Haruki Murakami’s “1Q84” is serving as a point of departure for multimedia flights of fancy in western Japan, offering many meandering paths to artworks and experiences in loose dialogue with the otherworldly.
From Sept. 24 to Nov. 26, the fourth edition of the triennial Okayama Art Summit brings magical realism and everyday intrigue to this seaside city with site-specific conceptual installations, public programs and participatory art under the banner of “The Parks of Aomame,” named for one of Murakami’s protagonists.
In “1Q84,” Aomame is an expert assassin whose unwitting journey into an alternate realm begins when she gets out of a taxi during a highway traffic jam and takes the stairs down to Tokyo’s surface roads. She soon discovers that she is in a parallel universe of sorts — most conspicuously indicated by the two moons that hang in the sky.
With your current subscription plan you can comment on stories. However, before writing your first comment, please create a display name in the Profile section of your subscriber account page.