TOKYO FESTIVAL PROGRAM This year’s program See the artwork, join the events

A Blink in History

As we enter the second year of the pandemic, Tokyo Festival 2021 will continue last year’s approach and host events both online and on-site.
Our theme for this year is “A Blink in History.”　

The past year has felt tremendously long and earth-shattering for us humans⁠—yet in the history of all living things, the spread of this virus may appear only as a blink of an eye.

If an array of transformations occurs within the darkness of this grand blink in time, what sights will we see at the end of the tunnel?

The present moment separates our world’s before and after and offers us time to prepare for the future.


We will announce details of all programs this year in late August. Please keep an eye out for our update.

Tokyo Festival Planning Team

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Introduction to some of the scheduled program for Tokyo Festival 2021.

Folk Performing Arts in Toshima 2021 Experience the Sounds of the Matsuri

Toshima Civic Center

Delivering the spirit of matsuri with its prayers, gratitude and wishes

by Nagasaki Shishiren, Fujimoto-bayashi Renchu, The Oeshiki Association etc.

  • Folk Performing Arts
  • Music
END

How to Create a Sustainable Environment for Performing Arts Tokyo Festival 2021 Symposium Reflecting from Asia on the Performing Arts and Democracy: Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines

Thinking about future political structures through local practices

  • Symposium
  • Talk session
END

Asian Performing Arts Camp Final Presentation

Online

Presentations by creators from across Asia who took part in an online art camp for two months

  • Artist Camp
  • Creative talent development program
  • Lab
  • Online Program
END

TOSHIMA OYAKO-SCHOOL

OWLSPOT Theatre Meeting Room B

Parent and child, but sometimes classmates A “school” where kids, adults and locals learn together

by YORIKO

  • Art Project
END

LOLO “Every Body feat. Frankenstein”

Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, Theatre East

A new adaptation of the classic story about a monster stitched together from the dead that asks us to consider the true nature of evil

by LOLO

  • Online Program
  • Theatre
END

How to Create a Sustainable Environment for Performing Arts Tokyo Festival 2021 Symposium What Makes Live Performance Unique? Education, Childcare, and Dance

Online

What do we lose when we can’t have live encounters?

  • Online Program
  • Symposium
  • Talk session
END

Baobab "jungle concrete jungle!"

OWLSPOT Theatre

Different bodies dance and intersect in this hymn to life for the post-pandemic world

by Baobab

  • Dance
  • Online Program
END

Kitamari/KIKIKIKIKIKI "NOCTURNE FOR THE OLD FLOWER"

Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, Theatre West

The life of an aging prostitute, gathering up and reweaving words with her body

by Kitamari/KIKIKIKIKIKI

  • Dance
  • Online Program
END

Online Discussion: Creating in Public Space

Online

Projects Changing with Communities

  • Online Program
  • Symposium
  • Talk session
END

Online Discussion: Intersecting Video-Performance

Online

Whither “performance” through a camera or screen?

  • Online Program
  • Symposium
  • Talk session
END

Gacha Gacha Gacha

Various locations around Toshima

Discover the city through chance encounters with capsule toys!

by Shoji Toyama

  • Art Project
END

The New Gospel

Online

A passion play of solidarity and revolution for the twenty-first century

by Milo Rau

  • Film
  • Online Program
  • Theatre
END

34th Toshima Noh Performance

Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, Playhouse

Noh performances by leading Noh performers associated with Toshima-ku

by Yoshimasa Kanze, Manzo Nomura, Man Nomura and others

  • Noh・Kyogen
END

Learning from the Future

Online

A posthuman dance fiction that reconceives the body

by Colette Sadler

  • Dance
  • Film
  • Online Program
END

Hand Saw Press "Riso Zine Studio: Make, Print, Connect!"

Riso Zine Studio / Zine Stand / Pop-up Print Truck (various locations around Toshima) / Pop-up Zine Stand (various locations around Toshima and Japan)

From me to you. From you to me. Connecting the world through zines.

by Hand Saw Press

  • Art Project
END

Farm-Lab Exhibition Work-in-Progress Performance ”unversed smash”

Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, Atelier West

building up a new sports

  • Creative talent development program
  • Lab
  • Performance
END

The Life and Times

Online

A celebration of what live performance can be in the theatre, where past and present overlap

by Scottish Dance Theatre

  • Dance
  • Film
  • Online Program
END

Art experience childcare the Art Support Jidokan

Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre

Continue to enjoy art while raising children! Children enjoy art too! Childcare + Art = Art Support Children's Center!

by Junnosuke Tada

  • Childcare program offering art-related experiences
END

Dancing Shakespeare “FESTƎ Twelfth Night”

OWLSPOT Theatre

by Takuro Suzuki

  • Dance
  • Theatre
END

Romeo and Juliet in Playhouse

Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, Playhouse

What lies beyond the door - unity or tragedy?

  • Theatre
END

Tokyo Festival Farm Asian Performing Arts Camp Lecture “ALSO SPACE, ALSO ART - What does art look like during a pandemic?”

Online

Special lecture featuring a trans field active guest

  • Online Program
  • Symposium & Talk session
  • Talk session
END

Me, My Mouth and I

Online

A funny and poignant journey into Not I and neurodiversity

by Jess Thom / Touretteshero

  • Film
  • Online Program
  • Theatre
END

Roaming Shopping Street Festival: Walking Garden

Higashi-Ikebukuro Central Park

A future garden gathered together from festive scenes hidden in the city

by Sceno-ha（Scenographers’ Collective）

  • Art Project
END

Théâtre du Soleil Cinema Anthology

Tokyo Metropolitan Theatre, Playhouse

A rare chance to experience the unique spectacle of Ariane Mnouchkine’s Théâtre du Soleil!

by Théâtre du Soleil / Ariane Mnouchkine

  • Film
END

From the Farm “フレ フレ Ostrich!! Hayupang Die-Bow-Ken！”

Minamiotsuka Hall etc

Straddling both online and offline venues, a hybrid theatre performance originally developed by young artists at Asian Performing Arts Farm 2020

by James Harvey Estrada, Aokid, Masashi Nukata

  • Online Program
  • Performance
  • Theatre
END

Series for All Vol.6 Understand and appreciate Yakumo and Soseki through the world of noh

OWLSPOT Theatre

Creating a world of narrative with two voices, shamisen and biwa lute

  • Traditional Performance
END

Series for All Vol.6 Understand and appreciate Yakumo and Soseki through the world of noh Special Talk

OWLSPOT Theatre

Deluxe talk sessions offering different angles

  • Symposium & Talk session
  • Talk session
END

Tokyo Festival 2021 Collaborative Project The 33rd Ikebukuro Play Festival

15 venues around Toshima-ku

Restart！

by Participating groups

  • Online Program
  • Theatre
END

Walking on Water

Online

A documentary about how Christo created a huge public art project

by Christo

  • Art Project
  • Film
  • Online Program
END

The City & The City: Mapping from Home
Presentation
Partner: Bangkok International Performing Arts Meeting (BIPAM)

TURNER GALLERY & Online

The city and personal identity, discovered by staying at home

  • Creative talent development program
  • Lab
  • Online Program
  • Research Program
END

Theatre accessibility lecture

OWLSPOT Theatre Meeting Room B

Considering and practicing accessiblity at cultural facilities

  • Lecture
  • Symposium & Talk session
END
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