The largest city on the northern Japanese island of Hokkaido entices collectors with the inaugural Sapporo International Art Festival, running through September 28. Despite competition from a spate of summer art festivals in Japan—including the Setouchi Triennale and Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale—fair direction by renowned composer Ryuichi Sakamoto drew Anselm Kiefer, Carsten Nicolai, Tomás Saraceno, and Subodh Gupta to participate, alongside Japanese new-media wizards Daito Manabe and Yuko Mohri. Fujiko Nakaya is contributing a fog work. In the spirit of a technologically advanced event set against the backdrop of Sapporo’s lush natural surroundings, Sakamoto will stage what he calls a “forest symphony.” The installation, planned with the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media, will be on view in the city’s Moerenuma Park, designed by Isamu Noguchi.
A version of this article appears in the July/August 2014 issue of Art+Auction magazine.
