Hibiya Park to Host Free Art Festival with Pop-Up Food Market

A free art event titled Hibiya Art Park 2025 – A Month of Encounters with Art Every Visit will be held at Tokyo’s Hibiya Park from Friday, April 25 to Sunday, May 25.

Organized as part of the Tokyo Metropolitan Government’s “Flower and Light Movement,” the event aims to showcase new facets of Hibiya Park. Following last year’s Playground Becomes Dark Slowly, this year’s edition returns with a broader program that brings together public art and performing arts across two themed periods.

The first session, titled Transformed Composition: Playing with Combinations and Mitate, runs from April 25 (Fri) to May 11 (Sun). It focuses on “mitate,” a traditional Japanese technique of creative reinterpretation found in practices like landscape design and ikebana, alongside the concept of “combination” as seen in children’s play, such as building blocks and sandbox games. Art installations reflecting these ideas will be placed at five locations throughout the park, drawing on Hibiya Park’s unique identity as both a children’s playground and Japan’s first modern Western-style park, blending Western and Japanese garden elements.

Participating artists include Hiroko Kubo, who will present two large-scale sculptures—Statue of Hainuwele and Gentle Hands—as well as collaborative duo Taketo Koganezawa + Seijun Nishihata, Giacomo Zaganelli, and Keita Miyazaki. On weekends and public holidays during the first session, food trucks will set up shop in the park, and flower- and plant-themed talk events featuring various guest speakers are also planned.

The event was curated by Junya Yamamine, who sadly passed away in January this year.

The second session, “Play”ing Catch – Practicing Ways of Gathering, will take place from Saturday, May 17 to Sunday, May 25, and centers on participatory performing arts programs. Inspired by the concept of “co-evolution”—the mutual evolutionary influence between flowers and insects—the event invites visitors to experience a world where people, plants, insects, birds, earth, and light all coexist and interact.

Playwright and director Kumiko Ueda will lead a special program titled Breathing Pool Training – Imperial Moat Edition, guiding participants on a morning walk from Tsutsuji-yama to Mikasa-yama within the park, joined by artists miu and Mikiko Kawamura as navigators. Additional highlights include outdoor screenings of two works by the avant-garde theater company Ishin-ha—Perspective Diagram and Twilight—alongside a revival of their iconic food stall village. The program also features VR art by Meiro Koizumi and Hiwatari (“Fire Bed”) by Toru Koyamada, offering a diverse lineup of experiences.

This second session is produced by Tomoya Takeda and Sayuri Fujii of bench, an arts management collective focused on performing arts.

While admission to the overall event is free and no advance reservation is required, some programs in the second session require booking and may involve a fee. Full details, including the schedule for each program, are available on the official website.