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Design Festa Vol. 29

Design festa Vol.29, one of the biggest events in Asia, took place in Tokyo Big Site on the 16th and 17th of May. 8500 artists gathered together and expressed their original world in their booths.

Design Festa Vol. 29Design Festa Vol. 29

Some beginners must think Design Festa is such a design event as Tokyo Designers Week or Design Tide, but that's totally wrong. Though they have something in common in terms of the large-scale event, the actual scale is beyond comparison and there are few works which could be called "design" in Design Festa.

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Kinji Mori, the liquid artist.

There's no need to make a presentation for Design Festa. Anyone can show their works regardless of nationality, age, and genre, if only the works are "original". The standard of this kind of event is to exhibit works based on a certain theme, but no particular topic in Design Festa, and we also have varied choicesーto see, to buy, and to eat.

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The chaos degree is increased in proportion to its ever-increasing scale. Among that, what was most interesting was a group that was playing Nintendo games in the space of 2 booths, making a mess with drinks and snacks. I tried to understand what they expressed in the mind, but when I knew how crazy they were about playing the game and grabbing the controller, it seemed like a sheer waste of time. There must be something interesting that is yet to be expressed, even in the aspect of "freedom".

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ROKU - an original charactor of deer came from Nara

It's also interesting to discover booths that have clearly set themselves apart from others among that chaos. You can find the one you are really satisfied withーfashionable ceramic art, cute character goods, or striking DJ's play.

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New Mashiko pottery with artist's original ideas

I wondered why there's a lot of people who got tied in the train back. Some walked off their legs on the really large site, but others were tired by all the new art and the never-knew/experienced expressions.

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Having expressed the cutting edge art of the moment each time, Design Festa is going to reach Vol.30 next time. However, it's not trying to look back on the Asian culture of past 15 years. It has always sent out the Japanese culture with a lot of energy, and the chaotic world caused by the energy would never be fade away.

Design Festa Vol. 29
Date: May 16th - 17th, 2009
Place: Tokyo Big Sight
Contact: Design Festa Gallery & Office
Address: Jingu-mae 3-20-18, shibuya-ku, Tokyo
Tel: 03-3479-1443
info@designfesta.com
http://www.designfesta.com

Text and photos: Tatsuhiko Akutsu

Have a look at "Shift city guide tokyo" for your information guide of tokyo.
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