Relieve yourself of the conventional biennials and triennials of the art world with the first art festival dedicated entirely to bathrooms. The smooth-named Toilennale is currently occurring in Japan, home to the world’s most complex and high-tech toilets, in the southwestern city of Oita. Commissioned by the city council, it brings together Japanese artists who have transformed 16 public restrooms into sites for art installations — kind of like pavilions at a traditional biennial, except, you know, each pavilion comes equipped with thrones for human waste (and no, this is not actually a large-scale Rem Koolhaas installation).

Officials have not stated whether the exhibition, which opened in July and runs through September 23, will actually recur every two years. As organizer Eisuke Sato told Quartz last year, the Toilennale is meant primarily as a way to boost tourism, providing “visitors with the opportunity to become familiar with Oita through art and bathrooms.” The festival basically attests to the fact that Japan’s public restrooms are so clean and cool that they warrant marketing as destinations one could find on TripAdvisor. (Oita already has a “transparency toilet” that shows off its interior when vacant.).......Continue Reading

> via hyperallergic