Art Week Tokyo was founded under pandemic conditions in November 2021 as a new, hybrid art event motivated by an ethos of community building and resource sharing. The annual citywide initiative brings more than 50 of Tokyo’s leading institutions, galleries, and art spaces together on a shared platform through coordinated programming and a network of free buses connecting all venues. In putting different art spaces in dynamic relation with each other as well their surrounding neighborhoods, Art Week Tokyo makes visible the breadth, depth, and richness of the art ecosystem of one of the world’s cultural capitals, appealing to both locals and visitors alike. The event has grown yearly with new programs and participants, quickly establishing itself as a convening point on the international art calendar. And it has achieved all this by staking out an alternate position to market-oriented events where sales are the primary measure of success, while still acknowledging the important role commercial galleries play in supporting and sustaining art activity.

In this talk, Andrew Maerkle, the editorial director of Art Week Tokyo, will provide an overview of the event and its development. In particular, he will address how Art Week Tokyo employs processes of transportation and translation—both of which imply a notional carrying over or displacement—to negotiate the shifting relations of center and margin that structure the local art scene and its place in the broader world. While Art Week Tokyo’s dispersed, mobile format responds to the specific conditions for life in Tokyo, could it become a model for the cooperative redistribution of cultural capital elsewhere too?

With this year’s edition of Art Week Tokyo launching in 4–8 November, this online talk offers a timely opportunity to consider the initiative’s development and its approach to building connections across Tokyo’s art ecosystem. Booking is required.