As Travel Restrictions Ease, Art Week Tokyo Flipped the Script by Bussing in VIPs Direct to Galleries. Many Dealers Preferred It
, 2022-11-03 17:45:20,
Foreign visitors to this year’s Art Week Tokyo—the first time many culture-seekers were able to travel to the capital city of Japan since the pandemic started—were taken on a 48-hour whirlwind bus tour to nearly two dozen galleries plus half a dozen museums and private collections.
Participating local galleries said they were happy to welcome the 350 VIP visitors from around the world, just weeks after Covid travel restrictions to Japan were lifted in mid-October. Some told Artnet News that they had sold several works by Japanese contemporary artists to collectors taking part on the bus tour on Wednesday and Thursday, with some dealers adding that they preferred this more direct format to the costly participation in art fairs, especially when the yen has been weak.
Co-founded by gallerist Atsuko Ninagawa and Kazunari Shirai, an entrepreneur and an art collector, Art Week Tokyo is organized by the Japan Contemporary Art Platform in collaboration with Art Basel, which plays an advisory role in the event’s organization as well as helping to bring foreign VIPs over. The initiative received financial support from the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and the Agency for Cultural Affairs, but organizers declined to reveal any financial information. The event held its soft launch last year, when the country was still closed to overseas visitors because of the pandemic, but it still attracted 20,000 local visitors.
Mitsuko Miwa’s solo show at SCAI The Bathhouse….
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