Study：大阪関西国際芸術祭 | 2025 Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival 2025

The fourth "Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival 2025" will be held as an international art festival that plays 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 time, the theme of the festival will be "social impact," which means culture and art, economic revitalization, and the emergence of social issues, and each venue will hold a program consisting of six chapters.

In order to serve as a guidepost to the diverse world within the Expo site, where 158 countries and regions come together, and to spark creative dialogue by reintegrating divided wisdom, public art (outdoor sculptures, wall paintings, and murals) will be exhibited within the Expo site as "Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival / EXPO PUBLIC ART."
In addition to providing visitors with a colorful and enriching cultural experience, the Expo will invite and introduce works of art from around the world throughout the site, which has the theme of "Designing a Future Society for Life," in an attempt to encourage dialogue and interaction among visitors through art.

Osaka Culturarium Tempozan (formerly Suntory Museum), designed by world-renowned architect Tadao Ando, will host the exhibition "Reshaped Reality" in collaboration with the German research institute IKA (The Institute for Cultural Exchange), asking the question "What is a human being?" Hyper-realistic physical expressions induce illusions in the viewer and shake the contours of life. This exhibition will provoke new artistic experiences and philosophical perspectives, and will make viewers reconsider the essence of humanity. It will respond to the Expo's "Designing a Future Society for Life," and will serve as an opportunity to deepen "consideration of people and life."

With the opening of Gran Green Osaka, the entire Umekita area will undergo drastic changes and become a museum, with a variety of elements such as buildings, public spaces, and signage being transformed into art exhibition venues.
The town of Umekita will also become a place for artists to exhibit their work, providing creative stimulation to the everyday lives of people who gather in the town. We will explore and create new possibilities that arise from the intersection of the city and art.

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 "Kakoroom - Kamagasaki University of the Arts" and "NISHINARI YOSHIO", a fashion brand based in "Kioku Handicraft Museum Tansu". In addition, we will add "Sanno Harmonica Nagaya", which is about 100 years old and still retains its Showa era appearance after repeated expansion and renovation, and is currently undergoing restoration, to the venue, creating a place for new encounters and creation.

The venue is the Semba Excel Building, which was built the year before the 1970 World Expo and is nearing completion in the Semba area, where the Osaka Metro Midosuji Line, Osaka's main artery, and the Osaka Metro Chuo Line, which connects Yumeshima, where the Expo site is located, to Morinomiya, where Osaka Castle and the ruins of Naniwa Palace are located, intersect. Semba flourished as a castle town around Osaka Castle and was one of Japan's three largest textile wholesale districts, and is also home to many international organizations such as consulates, making it a town where the cultures of the "East, West, North and South" intersect in many ways. This art festival will also feature exhibitions by artists from the Kansai region, as a key link that loosely connects each venue.

In order to utilize art and creativity as a growth strategy for Japan, we will hold art fairs and business contests as an "art version of SXSW," a forum for art markets and creative industry trade.
Held at the Osaka Prefectural International Conference Center, designed by architect Kisho Kurokawa, the festival aims to develop into a sustainable art festival, and will host interdisciplinary symposiums in collaboration with universities and research institutes to consider the future of humanity and the planet.