This year, Designart Tokyo — the capital’s annual international art and design festival — adopts the broad theme of “Together” in a celebration of the sharing and fusion of ideas. Notably taking center stage is a strong focus on sustainable enterprises, interior goods and artworks that reflect the growing global concern over environmental problems.
On: Design selects a few highlights of the festival, which runs until Oct. 30 at over 60 event spaces spread across multiple areas in Tokyo’s Shibuya, Minato and Chuo wards.
Sustainable design
Inspired by last year’s COP26 Conference in Glasgow, the “Next Circulation” exhibition brings together the work of sustainability initiatives and recycling projects by corporate brands and individual creators.
The works, staged by furniture and lighting designer Satoshi Itasaka, are displayed on units of fiberboard made with waste textiles and wooden tables that branch across the floor like a tree at the World Kita-Aoyama Building in Minato Ward. Of particular interest is Hiroto Yoshizoe’s “Orbit” — standing, glowing rods of recycled fluorescent light bulb glass that caught the attention of visitors to the Milan Salone earlier this year. Other unique pieces include “Printed Sculpture,” a group of fantastical artworks by Gelchop and BCXSY, each made of Land Loop, a naturally colored bioplastic developed by Toyoshima and Co. Ltd.
Visitors intrigued by these eco-friendly projects should also take a 10-minute walk to the nearby Itochu SDGs Studio, an event space dedicated to introducing sustainable development goal-inspired works by NPOs, NGOs, companies and individuals. The studio’s Designart exhibition presents three recycled and upcycled products: Konel’s geta sandals made from discarded garment fiberboard; Studio Poetic Curiosity’s Fabric Record, a playable vinyl also made from waste textiles; and Ao.Re’s reworked and aizome indigo-dyed furniture.
Under 30
The Designart founders’ Under 30 award selection of five young creators never fails to surprise. This year, three of the winners’ installations can be found among the many exhibits at Hibiya Okuroji, a shopping passageway beneath the railway arches of the Yamanote Line near Shimbashi Station, with the other two works joining the “New Platform with Asian Design” exhibition at the Hz Shibuya Designart Gallery.
In Hibiya Okuroji, Nina Nomura explores our perception of plastic as a mass production material by perforating everyday objects with thousands of tiny holes. Light floods through her honeycombed works, which include a refrigerator and its contents, turning them into luminous objets d’art. Sohma Furutate challenges how we perceive 3D-modeled, digital objects as well as physical, tangible items. His metal furniture-like pieces translate digitally rendered designs into real-world optical illusions that play with light and shadow. The third Under 30 work in Hibiya Okuroji comes from digital media and social artist Takaya Mic Mitsunaga, who presents “Berlin Wall Online,” a projection of his Instagram feed that documents what remains of the historic wall in its entirety.
At “New Platform with Asian Design,” Chialing Chang, of Taipei-based studio messageleaving, experiments with brass and steel to produce a collection of abstract mirror and lighting works, while Karyn Lim from Singapore showcases her “Transformation Bags,” geometric containers that can be manipulated into sculptural forms or completely flattened.
New techniques
Alongside Chang and Lim’s works at the Hz Shibuya Designart Gallery are exhibits by three Tokyo-based designers who each explore unconventional production techniques.
Artificial intelligence-generated designs are 3D-printed into a series of colorful, amorphic bowls through a collaboration between startup studio Quantum and 3D printing outfit Stratasys Japan. These items are contrasted with naturally warped wood objects made by Sdanley Shen. Last but not least are duo Miyu Ikeda and Takuto Kurashima’s (better known as the design unit M&T) minimalist sculptural forms. The fruits of a collaboration with interior design and renovation company Komoru Ltd., these works are made from a new biodegradable material using apple pomace collected from Aomori Prefecture’s cider and juice industries.
Future furniture
For a showcase of new furniture, the event space Kaisu in Minato Ward houses tables, stools and other minimalist pieces from Ishinomaki Laboratory’s latest do-it-yourself-style workshop involving local craftspeople in Miyagi Prefecture and seven high-profile architects and designers. Names include Ishinomaki Laboratory founder Keiji Ashizawa, Kenji Ito of design unit Mute, Torafu Architects’ Koichi Suzuno, product designer Naoki Terada and Nicolaj Friis Noddesbo of Norm Architects.
Also on display are three unusual portable tables by up-and-coming Japanese designers — a chōchin lantern side table by Shinnosuke Harada, a recycled-fiber felt storage box table by Junichi Ishigaki and an ultralight aluminum lap desk by Ryo Suzuki.
Rounding out the Kaisu collection are the decorative works of Mai Suzuki — complex spherical lampshades made using traditional kumiko woodwork lattice and joinery techniques.
Shows and events
PechaKucha Night Tokyo x Designart on Oct. 22 at the QWS Shibuya event space offers an opportunity to mingle with designers and artists in person. Hosted by Klein Dytham Architecture, the event invites eight Designart participants to present slideshows of their works. The lineup includes industry heavyweights Jin Kuramoto and Claesson Koivisto Rune as well as three aforementioned Under 30 winners: Nomura, Lim and Furutate. Tickets are available via Peatix right up until doors open at 6:30 p.m.. Presentations will also be uploaded to PechaKucha’s official website on Oct. 24.
Apple Marunouchi is also hosting two workshops for anyone interested in learning more about design processes. On Oct. 25, product designer Kaori Akiyama will talk about color inspirations and guide visitors through ways to incorporate color and texture in designs using the Procreate app on iPads. Satoshi Itasaka will take the room on Oct. 27 to reveal how Apple’s Notes and Pages apps can be useful for developing spatial designs and products. He will also invite guests to plan their own projects in a business workshop. Both are free lectures, but attendees need to book online via the Designart event page.
For more information on Designart Tokyo, including an online map of all venues, visit designart.jp/designarttokyo2022.
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