Okayama Art Summit 2025: The Parks of Aomame

The Okayama Art Summit is an international contemporary art exhibition that focuses on conceptual art, held in Okayama City every three years. Each time, a well-known artist is appointed as Artistic Director, with Liam Gillick, Pierre Huyghe, and Rirkrit Tiravanija serving in the post so far. The Okayama Art Summit Executive Committee (Chairman: Okayama City Mayor Masao Omori) has chosen Philippe Parreno as Artistic Director of the fourth Okayama Art Summit 2025 (52 days from September 26 to November 24, 2025).  The theme and participating artists were finalized as follows.

The theme of this year’s summit is The Parks of Aomame, inspired by Aomame, the mysterious character from Haruki Murakami’s novel 1Q84. As Parreno describes in his statement, a curated group of thirty individuals and groups from twelve countries and regions, including artists, musicians, architects, designers, scientists, writers and thinkers, will use their unique methods of expression to create new forms, transforming Okayama’s public spaces into places where reality and imagination naturally merge. A new role of Artistic Translator who shares the exhibition concept and connects people has been created upon the suggestion of Parreno, who emphasized the importance of such a role, and selected his old friend who has an affinity with the direction of the world of the work, Michihiro Shimabuku, for the position.

In accordance with the exhibition structure described by Parreno as an open-air exhibition that transforms the city itself into a work of art, admission has been made free at all venues, including the indoor exhibitions which until now have generally had entry fees. Okayama Art Summit 2025 is the first time the summit will have free admission. Initiatives like this focus on a vision to enable a more broad demographic of people, including local people, to participate in this international contemporary art exhibition rooted in this region, and to provide children who will lead the era of coexistence with AI with a valuable opportunity to experience world-class contemporary artworks in person. 

Read the full statement of Philippe Parreno here.

Participating guests
Schéhérazade Abdelilah Parreno (b. France, 1979), Marie Angeletti (b. France, 1984), Martine d'Anglejan-Chatillon (b. US, 1963), ARCA (b. Venezuela, 1989), Anirban Bandyopadhyay (b. India, 1975), Nicolas Becker (b. France, 1970), Ian Cheng (b. US, 1983), James Chinlund (b. US, 1971), Mary Helena Clark (b. US, 1983), Mati Diop (b. France, 1982), Frida Escobedo (b. Mexico, 1979), FABRYX (founded in 2023, US/France), Cyprien Gaillard (b. France, 1980), Nicolas Ghesquière (b. France, 1971), Liam Gillick (b. UK, 1964), Holly Herndon & Mathew Dryhurst (b. US, 1980 / b .UK, 1984), Isolarii (founded in 2020, UK), Alexandre Khondji (b. France, 1993), Mire Lee (b. South Korea, 1988), Lucrecia Martel (b. Argentina, 1966), Hidetoshi Nakata (b. Japan, 1977), Hans-Ulrich Obrist (b. Switzerland, 1968), Precious Okoyomon (b. UK, 1993), Rachel Rose (b. US, 1986), Dimitar Sasselov (b. Bulgaria, 1961), Tino Sehgal (b. UK, 1976), Shimabuku (b. Japan, 1969), Soundwalk Collective (founded in 2001, France), Ramdane Touhami (b. France, 1974), Angharad Williams (b. Wales, 1986)

Okayama Art Summit 2025: The Parks of Aomame overview
Period: September 26-November 24, 2025 (52 days)
Closed on Mondays (Open if Monday is a national holiday and closed the following day) 
Executive Producer: Yasuharu Ishikawa (President, Ishikawa Foundation)
Executive Director: Taro Nasu (Gallerist, TARO NASU)
Public Program Director: Chieko Kinoshita (Associate Professor, The 21st Century Kaitokudo, Osaka University)
Artistic Translator: Shimabuku (Artist)
Read the full press release here.

Media contact: Relay Relay LLP. / Yoshiko Nawa