Every three years, the Seto Inland Sea transforms into an archipelago of artistic alchemy, where abandoned schools become shrines of sound, forgotten fishing villages hum with color, and rice terraces cradle sculptural dreams. Since its inception in 2010, the Setouchi Triennale has redefined what an art festival can be: not merely a stage for contemporary works, but a living, breathing dialogue between place, people, and imagination. Rooted in a once-overlooked region of western Japan, the festival has become a global reference point for socially engaged, site-specific art, and a model for cultural revitalization in an age of rural decline.

As the Triennale returns in 2025 for its sixth edition, it does so at a moment of reflection and renewal. The scars of the pandemic, the pressures of depopulation, and the growing urgency of ecological stewardship all echo across the inland sea. But so too does a spirit of resilience. With its upcoming edition, the festival expands its commitment to sustainability, participation, and intergenerational exchange, charting a course that is both visionary and deeply grounded.

View from Naoshima, Photo: Sébastien Raineri

The official theme for Setouchi Triennale 2025, titled “Umidasu – Creating Sea of Hope”, encapsulates this dual impulse: to dream anew while listening deeply to what the sea, the land, and the people have long known. “Umidasu”, a play on the Japanese verb meaning both “to give birth” and “to bring forth from the sea”, reflects the Triennale’s ambition to foster new cultural currents from the old tides of tradition. It is a call to artists and communities, to co-create a sustainable future through beauty, empathy, and encounter.

This year’s Triennale also brings with it structural innovations that respond to both global trends and local realities. The festival will continue its seasonal format, spanning Spring (April 18 to May 25), Summer (August 1 to 31), and Autumn (October 3 to November 9), but with increased efforts to decentralize visitor flow and reduce environmental impact. Expanded ferry routes, new cycling infrastructure, and a strengthened digital platform (including AR guides and real-time translation support) aim to make the experience more accessible, inclusive, and eco-friendly.

Heather B.Swann & Nonda Katsalidis “Place for Sea Dreamers”, 2022-, Toyoshima, Photo: Keizo Kioku

In 2025, the Triennale also introduces an ambitious youth engagement initiative, inviting young creators from across Asia and beyond to collaborate directly with island residents in developing both artworks and local cultural programs. This reflects a growing emphasis on intergenerational learning and the passing down of intangible heritage, not just through preservation, but through creation.

One of the enduring strengths of the Setouchi Triennale is its commitment to site-specificity, encouraging works that grow from the islands themselves. Each edition is less a rotation of contemporary art trends and more a cultivated landscape of human stories, ecological textures, and intimate collaborations between artists and communities. The 2025 edition deepens this ethos, welcoming an eclectic mix of 114 artists and groups from 34 countries and regions, each bringing a unique response to the festival’s unifying theme.

Lee Ufan Museum, 2010-, Naoshima, Photo: Sébastien Raineri

This year, the Triennale embraces emerging voices from across the globe, with an emphasis on cross-cultural dialogue and local co-creation. Japanese-British artist Miyu Kurihara, known for her hand-painted ceramics blending Eastern motifs with contemporary design, has been invited to create a community-based kiln project on Shodoshima, involving island potters and schoolchildren in a collaborative process that will culminate in a series of public firings and open-air exhibitions. On Megijima, Indian collective Studio Saar, led by architect Samarth Sinha, is transforming a defunct elementary school into a hybrid space for learning and play. Drawing inspiration from local maritime folklore, the group has designed a “floating classroom” that reimagines the boundaries between land and sea, childhood and memory. The structure will remain post-festival as a permanent gift to the island’s dwindling population of families.