Roppongi Art Night is an art festival that is held at various locations around the Tokyo district of Roppongi. Galleries, museums, shopping centres and the like play host to art exhibits, performances, music and discussions.
Roppongi Art Night 2014 was the 5th edition of the event, and the theme was “Move Your Body!”, to tie in with the announcement of Tokyo as the 2020 host city for the summer Olympic Games.
Unsurprisingly there were lots of interactive exhibits and performances where the crowds were encouraged to get involved.
Many of the venues were open well into the night, up to 4am in some cases and the streets were packed with all kinds of people – young and old, singles, couples and families. There was a really great vibe around the whole area and people were really getting into the night and having fun.
The person and his dog below dressed in mirror ball outfits attracted quite the crowd as he walked through the lobby of the Suntory Museum of Art and the nearby shops.
Throughout the night, I found myself spending a lot of time focused not just on the art, but on the people too. You could often see the inner child coming out in the expressions on people’s faces – a sense of wonder that’s often lost underneath the realities of every day life.
My favourite event was that being held at the National Art Center of Tokyo. The center doesn’t hold a permanent collection, with its entire space being dedicated to rotating exhibits. I liked the Buttons/Rain exhibit outside which consisted of buttons strung from fishing line to appear like rain. It seems simple when written here, but the effect in person was spectacular.
Checking out Roppongi Art Night was a decision that my wife and I made on the day when looking for things to do on our last night in Japan and we were both really glad that we found out about it. It was a very fun night, with the whole area coming alive and there was a huge variety of art to discover, from the obscure to the accessible.