Videos by Tolokyo
There’s an outside stage with some great live music – and cute girls selling beer. What more could you ask for!?? ^__^

I have to give a big hand to star volunteer Phil aka ‘Tolokyo’ aka ‘Caught doin’ good’. Here for the 3rd time and on leave from planning his awesome project to film people doing amazing things around this globe of ours, he is bringing you on the spot coverage of Design Festa, here at Tokyo Big Site, this weekend May 15th and 16th. You can check out his regular channel here, but he is giving us rolling clips throughout the day on his raw channel

Welcome to Design Festa Vol 31!

Well, although its only just over a month since our 15th anniversary event, the days and weeks are flying away and we are organising the next event, happening May 15th and 16th next year! You can already apply online to be an exhibitor.

Today I wanted to mention one of our many foreign exhibitors at the recent Vol 30. Tama is a very nice guy whose home turf is jointly New Zealand and a tiny Polynesian island not too far from Fiji and Tonga, called Niue. This was his statement about his exhibition: “I represent ideas by colours, to convey subjects of thought energy & form, subatomic & macro nature, quantumness , space, emptiness, landscapes big & small, flows for one point to another, vibrations, routines of sort, nature’s natural unity,love, thoughts. Many works are based around Niuean motifs”

I emailed him after the event to see how his work is progressing since Design Festa,

How did you find about the event?
at a Hotel , I found a pamphlet

Did doing the event influence your way of working / exhibiting, did you
get any new ideas?
Not so much influence , but really interesting to see, new ideas always come..

What are your upcoming projects?
Entering art awards, trying to get exhibit of my work, still have work for sale in a gallery in Auckland New Zealand

Do you have any artistic goals / future ambitions?
To be my living, and make a career as an artist.

Any advice for other artists who are thinking about exhibiting at DF
Relax and smile, its a friendly place

Well I’d like to thank Kopo Tama for being such a great sport at the event and giving me this interview. I really enjoyed looking at his work and contemplating the mathematical and natural forms he uses.

Check it out for yourself!
kopotama.com

French tv programme KiraKira Japon came to visit the other day, and we took this short video with the director…
Thanks for stopping by!

We were very priviliged yesterday to have Will Andrews and Kaori Sakai come to visit, their erudite and extensive writings on art happenings in the city have kept Japanese and English-speaking readers on the pulse of creative Tokyo for over 4 years.

Even more impressive is the make-up of their operation – almost all volunteer staff who contribute passionately on a regular basis. Kenny and I were delighted to show them around our Harajuku galleries, feed them at our on site okonomiyaki restaurant, and hear their stories. Come back again soon guys! :0)

http://www.tokyoartbeat.com/index.en

Tony paints East 102!

Originally uploaded by Design Festa

Yesterday we caught Tony in the middle of painting East 102. The East galleries are really starting to come alive with a Harajuku flavour. Big welcome to all our fresco artists!

This bigger image is of a booth in the main event area. Some really well accomplished paintings with dark but very absorbing subject matter – Two headed cows, tradiational Japanese ghosts and goblins mixed up in beautifully picked colours. One of my vol 28 faves, but there is so much going on its hard to choose!

We’re back at Design Festa for another enormous, kicking art event. I am a little bit more used to it this time around, and I’ve had a bit more time to notice whats going on in the sidelines. There are literally 10s of thousands, people who have worked and worked since the early hours of the morning to fill the gigantic halls of Big Sight with all kinds of artwork, stage performances, films, clothes etc. And, despite the long hours, they’re all in good spirits, connecting with passers by and well wishers. Please drop by and join us!

Originally uploaded by Design Festa

Our featured visitor today is Malik, he is from Los Angeles and has lived in cities across the globe – London for several years after college, Osaka and now New York. He’s in town briefly to visit old friends and not knowing Tokyo so well found himself on our road and pulled by the shear force eminating from our eccentric and imposing building here in Harajuku. He says he was blown away by what was going on here, the murals on the walls, our kooky okonomiyaki restaurant next door – Sakuratei – and tales about our history and events. Thanks very much :D. He says we’re a diamond in the rough, a museum without boundaries. Cheers Malik, we’re glad we caught your interest!

This group exhibition consists of 3 Korean artists and 4 Japanese artists. They came together through a mix of unrelated events, DJing sessions in Shin Okuba, Middle Eastern dance? and what seems like plenty more besides. The exhibiton came together with the help of a very animated Mr Kensaku Hosoi, and is hosted in the West building’s second largest space. Kensaku says he chose Design Festa because its in an area with lots of people traffic and attracts a wide ranging audience and especially foreign visitors who he – with a seemingly unending energy – managed to converse with the many foreign visitors, feeling especially touched when they understood his work and agreed with his thoughts about it. He hopes others will come to see this vast amassing of photographs, and if he receives even only a small amount of positive responses from his visitors he would be very happy indeed.