TOP
Listening to the Tokyo Biennale
- Workshop
- Tours
- Sanpo
An Art Festival Experience That Doesn't Use Your Eyes / Listening to the Biennale with a Dialogue in the Dark Attendant
Dialogue in the Dark: Attending with Kinoppi (totally blind), we will experience Akio Suzuki’s “o to da te” at Tokyo Biennale 2025 and hold a discussion about our respective experiences.
What kind of world does Kinoppi, who is totally blind, perceive through sound? We will walk together, stand in that space, and listen intently. When installing the “Oto-date” work, Suzuki the artist taught us how to capture sound with our entire bodies. Standing in that same space alongside Kinnoppi, who is totally blind, promises to be a valuable experience. It will awaken a sense of sound perception different from our everyday lives. The Tokyo Biennale is an international art festival rooted in Tokyo. We look forward to discovering how its appeal can be experienced “without seeing.”
Walking Area
We will explore the points of Suzuki Akio’s “o to da te” in Tokyo Biennale 2025 installed around Artizon Museum, then proceed to view Yonaha Shun’s TA･TA･TARO 2023 installed in the Tokyo Station Yaesu North Exit passageway.
Guide
Michinori Kinoshita
Known as Kinoppi. Dialog in the Dark attendant; totally blind. Born in 1979. Visually impaired from birth. Lost sight at age 16 and has been totally blind since. Graduated from the Acupuncture and Moxibustion Department of Tsukuba Technical College (now Tsukuba Technical University) in 2001. Active as a Dialog in the Dark (DID) attendant since 2004. Also handles corporate training sessions in darkness. Provided interview and research assistance for the book How Do Blind People See the World? by Aya Ito (Kobunsha Shinsho).
Kinoshita enjoying “o to da te” installed at Toeizan Kan’ei-ji Temple.
Kinoshita experiencing the art installation near the Artizon Museum.
What is Dialogue in the Dark?
It is a social entertainment experience where participants, guided by visually impaired individuals, enjoy various senses and communication beyond sight within “100% pure darkness” where all light is completely blocked. Conceived in 1988 by German philosopher Dr. Andreas Heinecke, it has been held in approximately 50 countries, with over 9 million people experiencing it. In Japan, since its first event in November 1999, over 300,000 people have participated. It is currently held at the Dialogue Diversity Museum “Forest of Dialogue” in Takeshiba, Tokyo.
At Tokyo Biennale 2025, we will dedicate time to learning about providing festival guidance for individuals with visual impairments and apply this knowledge to our visitor services. We have invited representatives from Dialogue in the Dark as instructors, listened to the perspectives of individuals who are fully blind and related stakeholders, considered what we can do, and have begun implementing initiatives.
From the records of the “Special Workshop” titled “Encouraging Participation in Art Festivals for Visually Impaired Individuals,” held for Tokyo Biennale 2025 operational part-time staff and volunteers (October 4, 2025). Kinoppi (Michinori Kinoshita) and Shinsuke Shimura, Founder of Dialogue in the Dark Japan, attended and conducted the special workshop.
Ended 12/10/2025 / Around the Kyobashi Saiku
(Artizon Museum/TODA BUILDING)
(Artizon Museum/TODA BUILDING)
