Designart Tokyo, one of Japan’s largest design and art festivals, took place in Tokyo, covering a wide variety of genres such as design, art, interior design, and fashion. 

Themed as Sparks —Freeing your Thoughts, this year's design event hosted 108 exhibitions at 83 venues presented works and content from around the world. This year's event recorded over 210,000 visitors for108 exhibitions, the largest ever.

Designart Tokyo, one of Japan’s largest design and art festivals, took place from October 20 to 29, 2023 across multiple venues of Tokyo. 

A post-event report highlights and features group exhibitions from ten days as turning the entire district of Tokyo into a museum this year. 

World Architecture Community is official media partner of Designart Tokyo 2023 and is bringing you highlights and the most captivating installations from this year's festival.

Official Exhibition 

Designart Gallery Exhibition of cutting-edge creativity

DESIGNART GALLERY. Image © USAMIRYO

Over Dust for DESIGNART TOKYO 2023. Image courtesy of Atsushi Shindo

The Designart Gallery exhibition took place at one of the official exhibition sites Escorter Aoyama Bldg, showcased many of the latest creative works by the hottest creators from Japan and abroad including the featured pop-up store of the Danish furniture brand Muuto. 

The spatial composition of the exhibition was overseen by Atsushi Shindo, an acclaimed designer. An installation, Over Dust for Designart Tokyo 2023 of reclaimed acrylic panels—a mass-consumed relic of the pandemic—adorned a space of approximately 500 square meters. The exhibition also included Ambientec GALLERY showcasing their portable lamp; a nameplate workshop by Original Kolor Design using discarded materials; WASARA, delightful paper tableware integrating design and art arranged on a party table by furniture maker maruni; a collection of AMUAMI products featuring the finest of Japanese craftsmanship by traditional crafts director Yudai Tachikawa.

Official Exhibition

Asia Creative Relation Powered by The Lions “A New Horizon”

Future star designers from Asia

Image © Nacasa & Partners Asia Creative Relation Powered by The Lions

Image © Nacasa & Partners Dongwook Choi, Crest and Trough

Image © Nacasa & Partners, The Lions Journey Booth

The official exhibition with a cutting-edge theme is always a highlight of Designart Tokyo. 

This year, the Asia Creative Relation exhibition was presented under the theme of "A New Horizon", looking ahead to the year 2050 and bringing together Asia’s future star designers.The guest curator, Suzy Annetta, Founding Editor-in-Chief, Design Anthology, has divided the works into four categories that represent the potentiality of our future lifestyles — the what, how, and why of objects we choose to live with. 

These chapters were entitled Biomorphism, Upcycled, New Belle Epoque, and Future Traditions.

The above 3D model in the picture showcases The Lions Journey: Residences for the Unknown, a next- generation blueprint for a new lifestyle and wellbeing of the future, showcasing an innovative nautical residence that provides a new type of mobile living experience with a life full of discoveries and encounters. DAIKYO Inc., which rebranded its condominium brand The Lions in April of this year, presented the theme ultimate residence to achieve a fulfilled life in 2050. 

Ambitious works reflecting the theme of Freeing your Thoughts

21B STUDIO, ink couture project. Image © Nacasa ＆ Partners

Kumiko by Mai Suzuki. Image ©︎ Reina Saito

Tokyo Art Intersection Vol.3, Perspective of a Chair 3. Image © Nacasa & Partners

The experimental and ambitious works by young creators that reflected Freeing Your Thought, the theme of Designart Tokyo 2023, attracted a great attention. The UNDER 30 program, a support program for young artists, received a very large number of entries this year, demonstrating their strong passions. Here are some of the uniquely created innovative works.

This section presented Mai Suzuki's Kumiko dresses and lighting works based on Yoshizukushi, expressing a positive-minded Edo-style aesthetic with respect for tradition while also exploring the undiscovered by embracing the old and the new. Another works included ink couture project by 21B STUDIO (by Daijiro Arimura, Koeda Kobayashi, and Shotaro Tokioka). The studio presented the design project that seeks to repurpose non-woven fabrics, used for disposing of ink waste from offset printers, into a new material. 

In addition, under the theme of "Gazing Out from the Perspective of a Chair," the various chairs of Siin Siin, sekisai, Sohma Furutate, Takuto Ohta, Akina Tokiyoshi, Yuka Numata, Rio Kobayashi were exhibited in Tokyo Midtown Yaesu as part of Tokyo Art Intersection Vol.3 section. 

Honoka, Tatami ReFAB Project. Image © Nacasa＆Partners

Another installation in this section included HONOKA Design Lab's Tatami ReFAB Project", using large-scale 3D printing technology, the project re-weaves tatami to modern living. Discarded tatami and waste materials were blended with biodegradable resin to create new furniture. The exhibition not only showcased the finished pieces but also highlighted the production process and materials used, drawing significant attention.

Daiki Tado, courtesy of the artist

This section also showcased Nature or Nurture by Daiki Tado.Tado presented new products such as stools, chairs, and tables, the driftwood material that goes through a complex process that involves time spent in both the mountains and in the ocean, as an experimentally apply the new texture of this independent material. 

Art Conscious Lighting Works

Balloon Rantan. Image © USAMIRYO

ø［ou］ - Diversity of Light. Image © Nacasa & Partners

In 2023, many lighting works took a step away from conventional ideas and had an artistic appearance. Here are some of the highlighted works: designer, Satoshi Itasaka created beautiful glass balloons, which he has a long-held dream to life – to showcase his balloon series artworks in the stunning city of Venice this summer. Beautiful and delicate lanterns gently adorned the space of the Design Art Gallery.

Hiding in a bag, another piece is ø[ou] by HaKU Design Studio. The studio presented ø[ou] lighting that creates serendipitous visual effects with a unique finish and prism. This work is shown in three different styles by reinterpreting the concept of "Shu-Ha-Ri" from Japanese culture. Though this art furniture, allowing users to experience the diversity of lights by finding a style user prefer.

Inspirational Installation with a Beautiful Worldview

Perrier-Jouët × Fernando Laposse The Pollination Dance. Image © Nacasa & Partners

The installation surrounded by pink curtains represents The Pollination Dance by Perrier-Jouët and Mexican artist and designer Fernando Laposse. 

Champagne Maison Perrier-Jouët opened the largest- ever Pop-up "The House Of Wonder by Perrier- Jouët" at With Harajuku in front of Harajuku Station from 12 to 29 October. 

Through this installation, Laposse advocated the importance of re-conceptualizing nature. His work spotlighted the process of pollination and expressed the basic role of flowers and the relationship between plants and insects or animals.

BLIK Redesign Exhibition. Image courtesy of Designart Tokyo

In this section, the second work was designed by Nippon Steel Corporation and industrial designer Atsuhiko Yoneda, president of Atsuhiko Yoneda Design. The installation, named Keshiki, is a small complex focusing on people and content.

They redesigned the new lifestyles with environmental advantages of steel at the BLIK Redesign Exhibition, exploring new possibilities for blik materials through design studies and creating an opportunity for discussion. Product prototypes and environmental information on steel materials were showcased at the venue along with a blik-made installation.

The Design Studio That Will Never Be Completed, CLAY Minami Aoyama Opening Exhibition. Image © Nacasa & Partners

Another piece in the installation above celebrates the opening of CLAY Minami Aoyama, the new studio of the Fujifilm Design Center, based on the theme “the Design Studio that will never be completed,” expressing continuous evolution.

Originally designed by all 80 Fujifilm in-house product/service designers responsible for exteriors, spaces, production desks, lighting, signs, elevators, and manholes, this design studio can be considered a single work of art. The office was on view for a limited time only.

Interior

Presentation with history and craftsmanship

Flexform, Tokyo. Image courtesy of the brand

Time&style, CKR atmosphere. Image courtesy of Designart Tokyo

The interior section focused on history and craftsmanship. Flexform (in the first image above) presented a dynamic exhibition with four photographers who have reproduced on large panels a series of advertising campaign photographs that take visitors on a timeline from the 80's to the present day. The exhibition took visitors on a journey that impresses you with Flexform timeless style.

Another show featured Drill Design’s latest creation "Diamond back", a collection of products inspired by the Windsor chair, and others. Also, the “Drop Paper Lamp”, a lighting product created by Claesson Koivisto Rune for Hotel K5 Tokyo, along with previously unreleased lounge chairs were displayed. It was a presentation that fused traditional Japanese technology with Scandinavian sensibilities.

Art

The Delight of Art at High-Profile Exhibitions

Kotaro Nukaga © Nacasa＆Partners

The art section fetaured various artworks from various artists from around the world. 

For instance, Reflections of Spaces - Spaces of Reflection by German artist Candida Höfer at Kotaro Nukaga showcased a large body of work, including her signature Library series. 

Her works unveiled the dynamics in space through the notion of place and present a new perspective of realism through the reflections.

MA5 Gallery. Image courtesy of Designart Tokyo

The second work is the Pattern Stroke, by Nobuto Fukutsu, a painter who pursues a unique style of painting using various patterns. Fukutso's works were presented at MA5 Gallery, a high-profile gallery established by Sanlorenzo Japan. 

The exhibition featured works of Pattern Stroke, a method that involves pasting together patterned parts, as well as landscape paintings from his travels. The reception party was held on the opening day and the exhibition was a great success with many visitors.

Jaeeun Choi Installation view of White Death 2023. Image © Nacása & Partners Inc

Another major installation is the "La Vita Nuova" exhibition by Jaeeun Choi at Ginza Maison Hermès Le Forum. 

The Ginza Maison Hermès Le Forum holding the Ecology: Dialogue on Circulations Dialogue 1 "La Vita Nuova" exhibition by Jaeeun Choi, that explores the practice of ecology in art, until January 28th, 2024.

A solo exhibition by Korean artist Jaeeun Choi in continuous dialogue with the environment and nature, presented both past and new works, looking back over 40 years of her practice. The exhibition included a breathtaking new work titled White Death, inspired by her visit to Okinawa, where she saw a large amount of dead coral washed up on the beach.

Various events and workshops

Pecha Kucha Night x Designart Tokyo Special. Image © Brian Scott Peterson

Designart Tokyo also hosted various events and workshops. These events were Design Touch Talk Salon, an Apple Talk at Apple Omotesando, PechaKucha Night x Designart Tokyo Special, and Espace Louis Vuitton Tokyo Special workshop. 

Designart Tokyo x Design Touch was based on the themes New Urbanism: How to live in the future and A Creative Resource to Explore. 

Another event, titled as The PechaKucha Night x Designart Tokyo Special, was held on October 25th at the Core Kitchen/Space. According to the organizers, "it was a unique once-a-year event organized as part of the event." 

Presenters included UNDER 30 artists 21B STUDIO and Gala Espel, along with Fernando Laposse, who collaborated with Perrier-Jouët, and Edward Cole, President of Fender Musical Instruments Corporation.

Espace Louis Vuitton Tokyo Special workshop. Image © Takuya Yamauchi

During Designart Tokyo 2023, a special workshop was held at the Espace Louis Vuitton Tokyo art space on the 7th floor of the Louis Vuitton Omotesando store on Friday, October 27th and Saturday, October 28th.

At the venue of an ongoing solo exhibition, L>espace), by Cerith Wyn Evans, a unique project, Constellation sonore, inspired by his works of art, was executed with world-renowned musicians from France, the country of art, and other countries.

Fender Flagship Tokyo, Fender Pick Tables. Image © Nacasa＆Partners

Fender Flagship Store

This year on June 30, Fender opened its first-ever flagship store, Fender Flagship Tokyo, in Tokyo's Harajuku/Omotesando. Designed by Klein Dytham architecture (KDa) whose works include Ginza Place and Hoshino Resort Risonare amongst many others, Fender Flagship Tokyo celebrates the concept of “music lovers and instruments,” where any visitor, whether an excited beginner or veteran musician, not only feels welcome, but is immersed in the store and is encouraged to take the time to touch and experience. Inspired by colorful guitar picks, 

Fender Pick Tables, designed by Klein Dytham architecture in collaboration, were displayed during the duration of Designart Tokyo 2023 along with other new series.

Designart Tokyo is an annual art design event, hosting a wide variety of exhibitions across various genres - from design, art, interior design to fashion. The event takes place at the end of October across multiple venues in Tokyo.

Top image in the article © Nacasa & Partners Asia Creative Relation Powered by The Lions.

Designart Tokyo exhibition