EVENTS

RRR OFFICE approaches gathering as both methodology and theory: an open practice that uses presence, conversation, and shared time as tools for collective making. Each encounter contributes to the formation of the work, slowly transforming Ebihara Shoten into a site of exchange and resonance. It runs its own program, but also opens to others through a sub-rent approach.   The week’s participant in the sub-rent program is Lily Onga. Starting from Ebihara Shoten, a century-old former clothing store, Lily Onga wanders around Kanda’s Yanagihara street to record memories of people’s activities in old and new shops, shrines, kindergarten, and dwellings by observing, interviewing and recording by filling in the paper forms found in the very own place with drawings. It is not quite scientifically accurate as photographs, but it is pretty accurate as human’s memories. From 14 (Fri) to 16 (Sun) November the artist will be staying on-site to create new works. Previously created pieces will also be on display, so please feel free to stop by!   Artist Lily Onga Born in 1997 in Bangkok and now based in Tokyo, Lily began her career in book design before expanding into illustration and animation. Using colored pencils, clay, wood, receipts, boxes, eggshells, and found objects, she collects materials like a crow drawn to shine—turning everyday fragments into imaginative worlds. Her work blends comic-like expressions, receipt graphics, and playful design twists, revealing an artist endlessly fascinated by the beauty and absurdity of daily life. http://lilyonga.com/ Instagram: @Lilyonga

RRR OFFICE approaches gathering as both methodology and theory: an open practice that uses presence, conversation, and shared time as tools for collective making. Each encounter contributes to the formation of the work, slowly transforming Ebihara Shoten into a site of exchange and resonance. It runs its own program, but also opens to others through a sub-rent approach. The week’s the sub-rent program is the workshop by Helen Eriksen. This workshop brings together two groups of participants—arts faculty students and students of Japanese language—across three convivial sessions shaped by dialogue and exchange. At its core lies a guiding question: How does a collective identity align with the needs and wishes of individual identity? In this workshop, participants explore national and individual identities through collage and assemblage. By bringing their own skills, methods, and cultural knowledge, participants contribute to creating a shared, collaborative space. By combining perspectives from artistic practice with those rooted in Japanese language and culture, the project opens space for dynamic and unexpected visual dialogues around belonging, national narratives, and the shaping of personal experience. Schedule(tentative) 11:00-13:00　Introduction 14:00-17:00   Collage and Assemblage   Artist Helen Eriksen Artist and educator living and working in Oslo. She was born in and raised in the UK. She is a co-founder of Tenthaus art collective and currently an associate professor in arts and crafts at Oslo Metropolitan University. She works in the intersection of art, pedagogy, and research to explore the potential of that space and to investigate transdisciplinary modes of knowledge production.

A participatory event by Elke Reinhuber, a biennale artist.   We’re excited to announce an additional lecture performance!It will be held on Saturday, 8 November at 12:00-14:00.   The Urban Beautician tries to emphasise or even improve neglected details in our urban environment with non-intrusive interventions and performances to camera. Since more than two decades, she takes care of things no one else does. These overlooked details in urban space gain a new breath of life through performance, installations, video and photography.     Now in Tokyo, she invites her audience to join her on a walk through different areas to support her in identifying aspects that could do with some corrections. An introductory lecture performance will provide further insight to her approach before joining her to observe and document the nooks and crannies of the city with her ironic perfectionism.   What to Bring Camera or mobile phone, rubber gloves   Notes English support is available. In case of rain, the event will be held indoors. The event may be photographed or filmed. Please let us know in advance if you do not wish to be recorded.

RRR OFFICE approaches gathering as both methodology and theory: an open practice that uses presence, conversation, and shared time as tools for collective making. Each encounter contributes to the formation of the work, slowly transforming Ebihara Shoten into a site of exchange and resonance. It runs its own program, but also opens to others through a sub-rent approach. Sub-rent means the space can be usedindependently by artists or local communities, creating open-ended forms of participation. Sub-rent allows others to use the space freely, while respecting house rules and collaboration agreements. Through this, we want to explore: RADMIN, gathering, and translocal methods. How social and community projects can grow in Tokyo. How trust and collaboration can help create space. Making use of spaces that are often overlooked.   The first participant in the sub-rent program is Slekke Wørld. On Sunday November 2nd at Ebihara Shoten, Slekke Wørld presents an audiovisual installation which is part of their ongoing project Water Based. Since 2022, they are researching the significance and role of ephemeral graffiti in different urban locations around the world. Water Based is a process-oriented experimental project synthesizing field recording, site-specific interventions, participatory post-graffiti and video.   Artist Slekke Wørld Slekke Wørld was born in Belgium and lives in Oslo, Norway. Their work includes art, curation, and cross-disciplinary collaboration. They synthesize tools and rituals from gardening and graffiti through a variety of media such as performance, installation, and site-specific interventions. Carving out space to make tangible things which transcend societal labels and constraints, connecting with processes of deep change and transitions in life. They investigate self-organized dissemination via small-press and video and alternative exhibiting approaches such as off-site and online. Slekke is a member of the Tenthaus collective since 2019, and a member of the GRAA collective since 2022. Since 2018 they annually perform a participatory spring ritual with Bart Van Dijck. https://slekke.com/

Workshops by L PACK. (Susumu Odagiri and Tetsuya Nakajima), biennale artists.   The project “Totes my GOATs” by L PACK. collects tote bags sold at art festivals around the world and sheds light on the relationship between “art festivals (the extraordinary)” and “tote bags (the ordinary)” through their designs and backgrounds. In this workshop, participants will freely combine provided texts to create their own “original art festival,” which will then be printed onto tote bags using silk-screen printing. From designs that feel like they could actually exist to unique and unconventional creations, let’s collaborate to make a one-of-a-kind original art festival tote bag together.   Notes We will prepare the tote bag body. Additional printing on brought-in materials is also possible.

Globalization, transformations in information technology, and changes in artists’ practices are profoundly reshaping the nature of international art exhibitions. Exhibitions and art festivals are no longer confined by time and space; instead, they are becoming seamlessly interconnected across temporal and spatial boundaries. Collaborative practices between artists and curators now extend beyond the exhibition period, continuing even after the official schedule has ended and outside the exhibition venue. This symposium will explore new forms of collaboration among artists, collectives, exhibitions, and art festivals within this evolving context.   Panelists Binna Choi (curator, Hawai’i Triennial 2025; artistic director, Korean Pavilion, Venice Biennale 2026) Maria Svonni (artistic director, Luleåbiennalen and Verdde) Mechu Rapela (curator, Tenthaus Art Collective) Truong Que Chi and Nguyen Phuong Linh (artists; Nhà Sàn Collective) Masato Nakamura (artist; general producer, Tokyo Biennale 2025) Yoshitaka Mōri (sociologist; professor, Graduate School of Global Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts)   Panelists Profile Binna Choi Binna Choi is a South Korean curator whose practice interconnect art, the curatorial, and the (sovereign) commons based on politics of decolonisation, indigenous practice and epistemology, and institutional change and unlearning, She directed Casco Art Institute: Working for the Commons in the Utrecht, the Netherlands over a decade where she curated projects such as Grand Domestic Revolution (2009–2012 with Maiko Tanaka and Yolande van der Heide), Site for Unlearning (Art Organization) (2014–2018 with Annette Krauss and the evolving Casco Team), Travelling Farm Museum of Forgotten Skills (2018–2022 with The Outsiders), next to a number of commissions and experimental collective works. Together with You Mi, she also maintains a study platform Unmapping Eurasia. Besides, Choi also served as a curator/co/artistic director for art festivals such as the 2025 Hawai‘i Triennial, the 2022 Singapore Biennale, and the 2016 Gwangju Biennale, and curates the Korean Pavilion of the 2026 Venice Biennale.  In the context of pedagogy, she served as the faculty for Dutch Art Institute over a decade and the guest professor for the Gwangju Biennial International Curator Course 2025. Since 2024, Choi also works as the supervisor for Doosan Curator Workshop.   Maria Svonni Maria Svonni is a curator based in Giron, Sápmi. Her work is organized around collaborations, utilizing site-specific methods to promote dialogue and long-term change. She is the artistic director of Luleåbiennalen, Scandinavia’s oldest art biennial, and founder and artistic director of Verdde, a nomadic art institution working for the inclusion of Sámi perspectives. Svonni was part of the team that formulated the artistic program in the winning application for Giron to become European Capital of Culture in 2029 and in 2018 she led the establishment of KiN, the first museum focused on contemporary art in the most northern parts of Sweden.   Mechu Rapela Mechu Rapela is a co-director of the Tenthaus Collective, dedicated to fostering artistic collaboration across cultures. With a Master’s in Art History from the University of Oslo, she is an art historian, producer, and curator with a practice in space making. Currently, she is curating a KORO (Art in Public Space) project in Oslo.   Truong Que Chi and Nguyen Phuong Linh Truong Que Chi (b.1987) and Nguyen Phuong Linh (b.1985) are artists whose long-standing friendship has developed into collaboration. Truong examines contradictions and memory within everyday life through video and installation, while Nguyen poetically explores bodily traces and resilience. Since 2021, they have created works together, bringing poetic tension to space through bodily perceptions. Their practice engages with intergenerational memories of loss and the materiality of women’s bodies. They have exhibited at the Busan Biennale and Asian Art Biennale, and are members of Hanoi’s artist-run space Nhà Sàn Collective.   Masato Nakamura Born in 1963 in Ōdate, Akita, he has led numerous urban and community-based art projects since the 1990s and founded the art collective Command N in 1997. In 2001, Nakamura exhibited at the 49th Venice Biennale (Japan Pavilion). In 2010, he established the public-oriented cultural facility Arts Chiyoda 3331, managing it until 2023. He serves as the overall director of the Tokyo Biennale (2021, 2023) and General Producer (2025). He has published multiple books and received the 2010 Arts Encouragement Prize and the 2018 Architectural Institute of Japan Cultural Award.   Yoshitaka Mōri Sociologist. Born 1963 in Nagasaki. Mōri is a professor at Tokyo University of the Arts Graduate School of Global Arts. After graduating from Kyoto University, he worked for an advertisement company, and then earned a Ph.D. at Goldsmiths, University of London. His critical practice takes on themes involving contemporary culture and the organization of urban space, as well as social movements, with particular interest in contemporary art, music, and media. Written works include Sutoriito no shiso (Ideas behind street) (NHK Publishing, Inc.), Culture = Politics – New Cultural-Political Movements in the Age of Globalization (Getsuyosha Limited), and Popular Music and Capitalism (Serica Syobo, Inc.). He also served as editor for After Musicking (Geidai Press).  

This lecture will be conducted in Japanese. For those interested, please refer to the Japanese page. Related article: “Wandering University” Report 1: A Special Symposium on “Wander for Wonder.”