Sapporo International Art Festival 2020: Of Roots and Clouds

The Sapporo International Art Festival Executive Committee is announcing the initial lineup of artists participating in the Sapporo International Art Festival 2020 (SIAF2020), scheduled for December 19, 2020–February 14, 2021.

SIAF is an art festival that happens every three years in the capital city of Hokkaido, Japan against a backdrop of breathtaking natural scenery. Artists chosen by the curatorial directors Taro Amano and Agnieszka Kubicka-Dzieduszycka, in collaboration with local curators, will reflect the festival's theme Of Roots and Clouds. 

Concept
SIAF2020 is a forum for inquiring into art and society. Rather than simply presenting artworks to viewers, we aim to shape the festival experience through the mutual interplay of everyone involved, in order to create an environment where thoughts and ideas can be shared, exchanged and discussed. What unique perspectives can art offer each of us in our attempt to confront society and live with others in harmony? What tools and methods can it provide that will help us to reexamine the issues plaguing our world? We hope you will join us in contemplating these questions.

Announcing the initial lineup of participating artists
In a time of climate emergency and shift to a digital realm that is built on machine learning, surveillance, and capitalism, the SIAF2020 art program offers a space to envision other scenarios. Together with the visitors and participating artists, and via artworks touching on the roots of human imagination, creativity, and technology, we would like to speculate about different approaches to the now and develop alternative strategies of coexistence with technology that can build up resistance and maybe even hope.

Like science, art has the cognitive power to comprehend the world and can propose another means of facing our problems. The various perspectives provided by the artists from Japan and overseas will encourage visitors to re-examine their daily lives and find new ways and the resilience to live through these troubled times.

Initial lineup of participating artists:
Satoru Aoyama / Julian Charrière / Cod.Act / Takuro Goto / Ryosuke Hara / Arinori Ichihara / Edward Ihnatowicz (Restoration: AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow) / Przemysław Jasielski / Nissho Kanda / Carolin Liebl & Nikolas Schmid-Pfähler / Kotaro Migishi / Seiko Mikami / Atsuko Mochida / Satoshi Murakami / Tohru Nakazaki / Hideki Ozuchi / Klaus Pobitzer / Rainer Prohaska / Suzanne Treister

Theme:
Of Roots and Clouds

Dates:
Saturday, December 19, 2020–Sunday, February 14, 2021

Main Venues:
Sapporo Community Plaza / Moerenuma Park / Sapporo Art Park / Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art / Migishi Kotaro Museum of Art, Hokkaido (mima) / Shiryokan (Former Sapporo Court of Appeals) / Sapporo Odori 500-m Underground Walkway Gallery

The SIAF2020 curatorial team comprises three directors responsible for contemporary art, media art, and communication design. They are supported by curators from local art museums, as well as experts from Japan, Canada, Poland, and the UK.

Team of Directors:
Taro Amano, Curatorial Director of Contemporary Art/Director in Chief
Agnieszka Kubicka-Dzieduszycka, Curatorial Director of Media Art
Kanoko Tamura, Director of Communication Design

Curatorial Advisors:
Satoshi Katono
Joasia Krysa

Curators:
Magdalena Kreis, Art Mediation Program
Kazumi Miyai, Moerenuma Park
Seiji Nakamura, Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art and Migishi Kotaro Museum of Art, Hokkaido (mima)
Kohei Sato, Sapporo Art Park

Ainu Culture Coordinator:
Mayunkiki

Graphic Designer:
Wabisabi

Advisory Board:
Violetta Kutlubasis-Krajewska, Director, WRO Art Center, Poland
Anthony Shelton, Professor of Art History + Director of the Museum of Anthropology (MOA) at the University of British Columbia, Canada
Hiroshi Yoshioka, Professor, Kokoro Research Center, Kyoto University, Japan

First held in 2014, the Sapporo International Art Festival (SIAF) takes place for the third time from December 2020 with the theme Of Roots and Clouds. At both indoor and outdoor locations across the snow-swept city, the festival features exciting examples of contemporary art and media art that resonate with Sapporo's unique culture and climate.

Press Contact
press@siaf.jp