About

The Parks of Aomame

Inspired by Haruki Murakami's enigmatic character, Aomame, from his novel 1Q84, The Parks of Aomame will run through the city of Okayama. These interconnected parks, both real and imagined, will draw upon Aomame's silent struggles and her complex existence within two parallel worlds.
The Okayama Art Summit 2025 will transform the city into a realm in which reality and imagination blend seamlessly. This ambitious event will reimagine Okayama’s public spaces, forgotten corners and urban parks, creating a map of wonder.
This forthcoming summit is not simply a visual art exhibition.
At the heart of it is a curated Guild of artists, musicians, architects, designers, scientists, writers and thinkers from all over the world — each selected for their unique ability to inspire and provoke new forms.

This diverse Guild includes Schéhérazade Abdelilah Parreno、 Marie Angeletti、 Martine d'Anglejan-Chatillon、 ARCA、 Mariko Asabuki、 Anirban Bandyopadhyay、 Nicolas Becker、 James Chinlund、 Mary Helena Clark、 Frida Escobedo、 FABRYX、 Sou Fujimoto、 Cyprien Gaillard、 Ryan Gander、 Liam Gillick、 Holly Herndon & Mathew Dryhurst、 Yuriko Ishida、 Isolarii、 Alexandre Khondji、 Mire Lee、 Hans-Ulrich Obrist、 Precious Okoyomon、 Verena Paravel、 Rachel Rose、 Dimitar Sasselov、 Tino Sehgal、 Shimabuku、 Soundwalk Collective、 Ramdane Touhami、 Angharad Williams.

Together, this group will transform the city into a laboratory where the organic and synthetic, the biotic and artificial and the real and virtual merge.
Okayama will become a site of speculation where the citizen and visitor will be exposed by the Guild to different moments and forms that will occur for the two-month period of the summit - this time being the time of an exposure. Things will happen by day but also by night.
The Parks of Aomame will be an open-air exhibition in which pedestrian crossings turn into stages, and city squares evolve into spaces for reflection and exchange transforming everyday interactions into moments of discovery. The triennale will open up multiple imaginative scenarios. Central to this experience will be to follow the "Aomame Path", a route connecting the various interventions scattered throughout the city. As you walk this path, you will be exposed to small, ethereal and surprising interventions. You will experience the emergence of a fiction through the city. Ideas sparked in one location will evolve and travel through the urban landscape, encouraging the cross-pollination of thoughts and experiences.

Okayama will become not just a backdrop but a participant in this experiment.
Each intervention and performance will add a layer of narrative to Okayama's urban fabric: parallel realities will offer glimpses into alternative versions of the city, Character-Inhabited Zones will be 'inhabited' by fictional characters, and narrative crossroads will allow visitors to choose their own path through the city.
The city will become a text to be read, interpreted, and rewritten. Street signs, building facades, and public announcements might subtly be altered to reflect fictional elements, blurring the line between the city's actual history and imagined narratives.
Residents and visitors alike will be invited to gather and weave together the dreams and imaginings of Okayama's residents into the Triennale’s evolving storyline. The line between art-event and daily life will become blurred through fictional services, time slips in which clocks and calendars operate differently, and alternate histories commemorated by plaques and monuments seamlessly integrate with real historical markers.

We look forward to meeting you there…it is going to be so fun.

Okayama Art Summit is the international exhibition of contemporary art (conceptual art) held triennially in Okayama City. The first exhibition took place in 2016. Works of renowned guests from around the world will be displayed at various locations, including historical landmarks and cultural facilities around Okayama Castle and Okayama Korakuen Garden. Art appreciation and walking tours of the city can be enjoyed at the same time as you can make a round of the venues on foot. This is one of the features of Okayama Art Summit.

Name

Okayama Art Summit 2025
Title

The Parks of Aomame
Period

2025.9.26FRI.-2025.11.24(MON and a substitute holiday)
Closed

Closed
Mondays（ Except October 13, November 3, and November 24.　Instead, closed on Tues., October 14 and Tues., November 4.）
Venue

Former Uchisange Elementary School / Tenjinyama Cultural Plaza of Okayama Prefecture / Okayama Orient Museum Pre-Entrance / Okayama Shrine / Izushicho Vacant Lot / Okayama Prefectural Library / Marunouchi House / Former Igarashi Photostudio / Shiroshita Underground Plaza / Okayama Symphony Bldg. / Omote-cho shopping Street / Okayama Tenmaya / Former Nisigawa Bridge Police Box / Nishigawa Ryokudo Park / Other locations in Okayama
Admission

Free
Management structure
- Organizer
  
  Okayama Art Summit Executive Committee
- Chairperson
  
  Masao Omori, Mayor of Okayama
- Vice Chairperson
  
  Kazuo Kasahara, Vice-Governor, Okayama Prefecture
  Hisashi Matsuda, President, Okayama Chamber of Commerce and Industry
- Auditor
  
  Shinji Inoue, Certified Public Accountant, Inoue CPA Office
- Executive Producer
  
  Yasuharu Ishikawa, President, Ishikawa Foundation
- Executive Director
  
  Taro Nasu, Gallerist, TARO NASU
- Artistic Director
  
  Philippe Parreno, Artist
- Public Program Director
  
  Chieko Kinoshita, Associate Professor, The 21st Century Kaitokudo, Osaka University
- Artistic Translator
  
  Shimabuku, Artist
- Advisors
  
  Hiroshi Taguchi, Chair, Okayama City Council
  Yasutomo Nasu, President, Okayama University
Affiliated entities

Okayama City, Okayama City Board of Education, Okayama Prefecture, Okayama Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Okayama Visitors & Convention Association, Okayama Culture Zone Liaison Council, The Consortium of Universities in Okayama, Sanyo Shimbun Co., Ltd., RSK Sanyo Broadcasting Co., Ltd., Okayama Broadcasting Co., Ltd., TV Setouchi Broadcasting Co., Ltd., Okayama Bus Association, Okayama Taxi Association, Okayama Branch of West Japan Railway Company Co., Ltd., Okayama cultural arts Creation Foundation, Ishikawa Foundation