~An international contemporary art festival with six chapters of exhibits set in iconic locations across Osaka~

Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival Executive Committee (ARTLOGUE Inc., Head Office: Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture, CEO: Suzuki Daisuke) is pleased to announce the latest information on Study: Osaka Kansai International Arts Festival 2025.

This art festival is an international contemporary art festival that will be held from Friday, April 11th to Monday, October 13th, 2025. During the Osaka-Kansai Expo, the festival will take place in various locations symbolizing Osaka, including the Expo site in Yumeshima, Osaka Culturarium Tempozan designed by Tadao Ando, ​​Osaka Prefectural International Conference Center (Nakanoshima) designed by Kisho Kurokawa, the Nishinari-Senba area, and the National Museum of Ethnology in Expo Commemoration Park, where the 1970 World Expo was held.

The fourth festival in 2025 will be held as an international art festival that will play a role in connecting the Osaka-Kansai Expo with the Osaka area, and will be held as an art festival that studies the relationship between art, people, and society through domestic and international art projects. This year's theme is "social impact," which means culture and art, economic revitalization, and the manifestation of social issues, and each venue will have an exhibition composed of six chapters.

"Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival 2025" ticket purchase website:
https://osaka-kansai.art/pages/ticket
*Please note that tickets for this art festival will not grant admission to the Osaka, Kansai Expo.

■ Concept of "Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival 2025"

Social Impact

It is said that art can help people develop the creativity to open up the future and the imagination to care for people and society. The ripple effects that art has on cities, both domestically and internationally, are countless. Utilizing the power of art as a cornerstone of growth strategies not only for Osaka and Kansai, but for Japan as a whole, is crucial to creating a better society of the future. We believe that holding the Osaka-Kansai Expo and the Osaka Kansai International Art Festival at the same time in 2025 will be an opportunity to move global civilization into a new phase.

We are embarking on a new challenge: hosting an international art festival that is sustainable in a society with a declining population. Starting in 2022, we will hold three small-scale pre-festivals as studies, and the fourth international art festival will be the main festival. We aim to create a cultural and artistic event that is not just a one-off event, but one that will become established as a part of the city's appeal and be inherited and developed as a growth strategy.

This year is not the goal, but the starting line, and we aim to eventually establish an "International Art City Osaka" where art and creativity are overflowing in the streets of Osaka and Kansai, where related jobs and employment are created, where artists, creators, and cultural and artistic workers settle and develop, and a "Kansai Art Region" in the wider area. Just as Taro Okamoto's Tower of the Sun at the 1970 Osaka Expo is still remembered by people as a work of art that symbolizes the era, the 2025 Osaka-Kansai Expo will also disseminate new artistic values ​​with an eye to the next era to the world through "Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival 2025".

*Please refer to the following URLs for details on the concept and exhibitions at each venue, as well as profiles of participating artists.
http://bit.ly/3RdaXOL

 

■ Chapter 1: An invitation to a diverse world

Venue: 2025 World Expo, Japan (Osaka-Kansai Expo) Future Society Showcase Project Art Expo Public Art "Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival / EXPO PUBLIC ART"

Provided by: Japan Association for the 2025 World Exposition

In order to maximize the impact of the Expo for the future of Osaka and Kansai, "Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival 2025" will exhibit public art works by artists at various locations within the Expo site, "Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival / EXPO PUBLIC ART." In addition to adding cultural color and richness to visitors, we will invite and introduce art works from around the world throughout the Expo site, which has the theme of "Designing a Future Society for Life," and attempt to encourage dialogue and interaction among visitors through art.

 

■ Chapter 2 Considerations for people and lives

Venue: Osaka Culturarium Tempozan (formerly Suntory Museum), designed by Tadao Ando

Osaka Culturarium Tempozan (formerly the Suntory Museum) was designed as an art museum by architect Tadao Ando and completed in 1994. With Osaka Bay as its backdrop and the blue sky as its backdrop, the building's impressive exterior is used by people from Japan and overseas as a base for various cultural activities, and is engaged in a wide range of activities. In collaboration with a German research institute, the venue will host the "Reshaped Reality" exhibition, which asks what it means to be human.

 

■ Chapter 3: The relationship between cities and art

Venue: Osaka Kita area

Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival Vol.3 Exhibition Artist: Shiino Mirin x Tanaka, Harumaki Gohan, Furokuro, Sekai x x0o0x
Curator: Yoji Sakuma "Augmented Music"
Photo: HARUKI Yoshiumi

The previous Hon-Art Festival Vol.3 featured the "Augmented Music" exhibition, curated by Yoji Sakuma, director of the Osaka Pavilion at the Expo 2025, which received a great response from a wide range of people across disciplines. In 2025, we will be holding the "Speculative Music / Narrative School" exhibition, curated by Hiroshi Sakuma.>

 

Chapter 4: The potential of art in a transforming city

Venue: Nishinari area

Kamagasaki (Nishinari area), once a place where workers who gathered to engage in physical labor during the period of high economic growth, has been facing various social issues in recent years, such as an aging population, an increase in foreigners, and rising land prices due to real estate investment. Since its launch in 2022, this art festival has focused on art practices in the Nishinari area.

We will continue to collaborate with the Cocoroom, Kamagasaki University of the Arts, and the fashion brand Nishinarii Yoshio, which is based at Kioku Handicraft Museum Tansu. In addition, we will add the Sanno Harmonica Tenement House, which was built about 100 years ago and still retains its Showa-era appearance after repeated renovations and expansions, and is currently undergoing restoration, to the venue, where we will hold a café called Atari-ya by curator Production Zomia, creating a place for new encounters and creativity.

Participating artists: Kamagasaki University of the Arts, Morimura Yasumasa (artist) + Sakashita Noriyuki (former day laborer, current student at Kamagasaki University of the Arts), Tanikawa Shuntaro (poet), NISHINARI YOSHIO (Nishio Miya + kioku Handicraft Museum "Chest of Drawers"), Saul Chan Htoo Sang, Aung Myat Htay, Karakuri Hakase, Kim Gemini, Wu Chi-Yu, Tuan Mami, Linh San.

 

■ Chapter 5: East, West, North and South: A city where cultures intersect

Venue: Semba area

In the Semba area, we will be holding the exhibition "Re: Human - The New Human Condition" by curator Mitsuhiro Kishimoto.

 

■ Chapter 6: The Creative Economy and the Future of the Planet

Venue: Osaka International Convention Center (Grand Cube Osaka) designed by Kisho Kurokawa

To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and South Korea, the venue will host the international art fair "Study × PLAS: Asia Art Fair," co-hosted by Artlogue Inc. and "Plastic Art Seoul (commonly known as PLAS)," a contemporary art fair that was established in South Korea in 2016.

"Study × PLAS: Asia Arts Fair" is a comprehensive art and creative fair jointly held by Japan and Korea to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and Korea, and to build a future-oriented relationship between culture and art in Japan, Korea, and Asia. The fair will be held in the Osaka-Kansai Expo 2025. You can view, experience, and purchase a variety of artworks at the Osaka Prefectural International Conference Center, designed by architect Kisho Kurokawa. This art fair is subsidized by the Korean government.
*Korean actor and artist Ha Ji-won will also be exhibiting artwork at the special exhibition.

Fair Director: Jun-Won Shin

 

Additionally, the venue, which spans multiple floors, will continue to host the business contest "StARTs UPs" for startups in the creative economy field and the symposium "Study Meeting," just like the previous event. For more information on "StARTs UPs," please click here.

 

■Other exhibits

Venue: National Museum of Ethnology (inside Expo Commemoration Park)

The National Museum of Ethnology was founded in 1974 as an inter-university institute for cultural anthropology, ethnology and related fields, and opened in 1977 on the site of the '70 World Expo in Senri, Osaka. The main venue in Expo Commemoration Park will be linked to the special exhibition commemorating the 50th anniversary of the founding of Minpaku, "Folk Implements Exhibition: Find, Observe, and Become the Source of Wisdom," and will serve as a symbolic place that connects the 1970 Osaka Expo with this art festival and the Osaka-Kansai Expo in 2025 across the ages.

Non will be welcoming the artist to the venue, where she will exhibit her work "Ribbon Tied on the Back (Kokeshi Lantern)," which is based on the shape of Tsugaru Kokeshi dolls, a traditional Tsugaru craft. A craftsman painted the design by Non, and Non then wore the ribbon.

 

"EU Immersive Art" Exhibition: Europe's most cutting-edge immersive art

This exhibition will introduce cutting-edge immersive art, including video mapping and light art. Stefano FAKE, the founder of THE FAKE FACTORY, an internationally awarded art festival-winning artist from Florence, Italy, will use sound and video to lead viewers into the works in line with the latest European digital art artist collectives. By utilizing phygital technology and fusing it with the physical world through light, the exhibition will provide viewers with an aesthetically sophisticated sensory experience.
Curator: Stefano FAKE (Founder of THE FAKE FACTORY)

 

List of participating artists (65 groups from 20 countries and regions) *As of April 13, 2025

Aung Myat Htay, Allen Jones, Tomoaki Ishihara, Walter Cazotte, Ng Qiyu/Wu Chi-yu, Evan Penny, Akito Okunaka, Kazu Hiro, Teppei Kaneuji, Kamagasaki University of Arts, Karakuri Doctor, Satoshi Kawata, Kim Gemini, Carol Feuermann, Kin Saji, COOK, Glaser/Kuntz, Sam Jinks, Santissimi, SceNE Project (Research Institute of Earth Sciences), Jamie Salmon, Jacques Verduin, Jarko Baszeski, Shuzo Azuchi Gulliver, George Segal, John De Andrea, New ImmigrationsB, sekai, Souchan Toussaint, Asuka Tazaki (Heralbony), Shuntaro Tanikawa, Daniel Furman, Tuan Mami, Duane Hanson, Tony Matelli, DONECY, Atsuya Tominaga, Tom Kübler, Nakajima Barley, Nakase Mill, Pear, NISHINARI YOSHIO, Niru Kajitsu, Non, BAKIBAKI, Hashiguchi Rintaro, Patricia Piccinini, Haraguchi Sasuke, Hikawa Kazuhiko, Fabio Viale, Brian Booth Craig, Flocro, Belinde De Bruckele, Mark Saijan, Maurizio Cattelan, Matilda Thea Heine, Miyake Mai, Mel Ramos, Mori Mariko, Morimura Yasumasa + Sakashita Noriyuki, Yoshida Momoko, Lin Sun, Robert Graham, Ron Mueck, x0o0x_ (As of April 13, 2025)

*Please refer to the following URLs for details on the concept and exhibitions at each venue, as well as profiles of participating artists.
http://bit.ly/3RdaXO

 

■ Overview of "Study: Osaka Kansai International Arts Festival 2025"

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・Official website and social media

Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival 2025 Official Website: https://osaka-kansai.art/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/study_okiaf/
X (old Twitter): https://x.com/study_OKIAF
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/StudyOKIAF/
Official LINE account: https://lin.ee/YRCAlUD

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■Company Profile

ARTLOGUE Inc.
・Representative: Artlogue Inc. CEO Daisuke Suzuki ・Head office location: Kita-ku, Osaka City, Osaka Prefecture ・Established: July 7, 2017 ・Business operations: Planning and management of "Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival" / Planning and management of web media "ARTLOGUE" and "Art Tourism"

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■ Contact Information

Artlogue Inc. Public Relations Office Name: Tomimatsu & Ichikawa Email address: study-pr@artlogue.org
Inquiry form: https://osaka-kansai.art/pages/contact