Another highlight of Art Osaka 2025 is its inaugural Screening Program, a compelling exploration of Japan’s rich and evolving moving image culture, held within the grand main hall of the Osaka City Central Public Hall in Nakanoshima. For the first time in the fair’s history, moving image becomes a key curatorial focus, drawing a direct line between past innovation and present experimentation in Japanese visual art. Curated by respected critic and curator Gen Umezu, the program is thoughtfully integrated into the venue’s architectural grandeur, a fusion of moving image intimacy and the monumentality of civic space.

Four thematic chapters offer a nuanced journey from the pioneering video experiments of the 1960s to today’s interdisciplinary digital expressions. Program A, “KIKAIDE MIRUKOTO”, presents rare filmed interviews with foundational figures such as Takahiko Iimura, Mako Idemitsu, and Shigeko Kubota, capturing the birth of video art as both rebellion and revelation.

Program B, “Arrival of the Moving Image”, celebrates the experimental fervor of film and video art with works that include contributions from Shoji Matsumoto, Etsutomu Kashihara, and contemporary artists like Masayuki Kawai, whose analog-digital hybrids dissolve the boundary between performance and projection. Program C, “Exploration of Expression” turns its lens toward visual artists who engage film not as medium, but as conceptual extension. Names like Saburo Muraoka, Norio Imai, and Yasumasa Morimura remind us that cinema can be sculptural, philosophical, and provocatively ambiguous.

The final chapter, Program D, looks forward. Titled “For Moving Image Works to Come”, it showcases younger artists such as Ryo Orikasa and Shinichi Takashima + Sun Nakagawa whose work probes the intersections of interdisciplinarity, and reflective spectatorship.

Kishimoto Yasushi, The Image of Techno Therapy, 1999 © Ufer! Art Documentary 1998-99, Photo: Kazuo Fukunaga

Another special event is the screening of Techno Therapy, a documentary revisiting the legendary 1998 multimedia exhibition conceived by Yasumasa Morimura, held in this same hall just before its renovation. Nearly three decades later, the screening serves as a temporal loop, an artistic echo that underscores the Public Hall’s role as both historic venue and experimental crucible.

Art Osaka 2025 reaffirms the art fair as both a marketplace and a meeting ground, a space where commerce and culture, collectors and creators, converge in meaningful exchange. With 63 galleries from across Japan and abroad, the fair offers a dynamic platform for acquiring contemporary works, from ambitious installations to intimate pieces by emerging talents. Yet beyond sales, the event fosters a sense of shared purpose: conversations between artists and audiences, gallery owners and first-time buyers, institutions and independents.

Whether in the ornate halls of Nakanoshima or the industrial expanse of Kitakagaya, Art Osaka cultivates an art ecosystem rooted in dialogue, discovery, and mutual support, affirming the fair’s enduring role as a cultural catalyst in Japan’s vibrant contemporary art scene. By bridging heritage and experimentation, the fair demonstrates how art can flourish across scales and spaces. With its expanded format, thoughtful curation, and community-driven ethos, Art Osaka continues to shape new narratives for artists, collectors, and the wider public, inviting all to engage with art as a shared, evolving experience.

Art Osaka 2025
Date: June 5th – 9th, 2025
Place: Osaka City Central Public Hall, Creative Center OSAKA
https://www.artosaka.jp