One night event “Roppongi Art Night 2010” illuminated all around the area of Roppongi for 2 days on 27th and 28th of March.

The event “Roppongi Art Night 2010″ created unusual space in Roppongi by integrating various works of art, design, music, film, performances and dances, which took place at the mega-complex area known as Roppongi Hills and Tokyo Midtown, Mori Art Museum, Suntory Museum of Art,21_21 DESIGN SIGHT, and The National Art Center, Tokyo as well as local areas such as Roppongi Shopping Street and public spaces in the district of Roppongi. Themed on “Dream Town” for this year’s event, many venues opened during the “core time” from sunset on 27th till sunrise on 28th for this exciting one-night art event.

The town of Roppongi transformed into an open-air museum where you could fully enjoy a wide range of art events. One popular show was a live painting performance by artist Hiraku Suzuki x Shing02, an energetic Japanese lyricist and producer who works in both California and Japan. Prior to the starting time at 11pm in Mori Art Museum, their performance made lines of people in front of the entrance. And soon after the door was opened, the show space was fully packed. First Shing02 started his live show and Hiraku Suzuki followed to the music to do live-painting. Along with Shing02’s sound, Hiraku Suzuki brought a sense of united atmosphere by his painting on over 4-meter long paper laid on the floor.

One of the big installations was this giant monster that appeared at Roppongi Hills Arena. Last year we saw “Giant TORAYAN” by Kenji Yanobe. This year, the 13-meter-high big symbolic piece “Before Flower” by Noboru Tsubaki took over the town of Roppongi. Other highlights were talks and performances held every hour.

At Roppongi Hills, there were many interactive installations using sound, light and film. The “Aurora ‘10 Roppongi” by Takefumi Ichikawa was an installation utilizing semi-transparent fabric and painting, which you can see through from inside or outside.

There were interactive art pieces everywhere in town. One of the ‘Roppongi as art gallery!’ program was Kohei Asano’s “Can Paths in Roppongi”, an interactive art piece which you can communicate with the stray cats of Roppongi using video cameras and screens.

Korean artist Choi Jeong Hwa showcased a big lotus flower, brilliantly bloomed on the water at Mohri Garden, along with full bloom of cherry blossoms for the night of Roppongi.

Mori Art Museum was full of visitors, as visitors could get in with 500 yen admission fee, limited during 12am until 6am. Not only museums, there were many people enjoying the art night in the town. During the art event, it seemed the whole town looked more revitalized than ever. Can’t wait to see more evolved art night next year!

Roppongi Art Night 2010
Date: March 27-28th, 2010
Place: Roppongi Hills, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo Midtown, Suntory Museum of Art, 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT, The National Art Center,Tokyo, Roppongi Shopping Street, public spaces, participating shops and restaurants in the Roppongi area.

http://www.roppongiartnight.com

Text and Photo: Kayo Tamura
Translation: Mariko Takei

Tags: 21_21 DESIGN SIGHT, Hiraku Suzuki, installation, live, Mori Art Museum, Noboru Tsubaki, painting, performance, roppongi, Roppongi Hills, Shing02, Suntory Museum of Art, The National Art Center, Tokyo, Tokyo Midtown