Greeting

With the future ahead still unclear,
we can do something through art.

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, artistic activities throughout the world have been beset by inevitable delays and cancellations. Roppongi Art Night, held ten times since its start in 2009, has been no exception to this. Through continued trial and error, the industries of the arts, drama, music, and theater have adopted various methods of disease prevention, while keeping artistic activity alive and striving to connect artists and audiences.
Since the cancellation of Roppongi Art Night 2020 scheduled for May of last year, the Roppongi Art Night Executive Committee has been giving consideration to methods of correspondence. Amidst these circumstances, what can be done in this moment to continue artistic activities and bring a revitalizing energy to Roppongi City? With the future ahead still unclear, we can do something through art. With this firm belief, Roppongi Art Night has taken on the challenge by moving to a digital platform through Roppongi Art Night Spin-off.

This will be an expression of art in the digital realm, a field which grew rapidly during the COVID-19 pandemic. We will offer a variety of content for the duration of the event, including webinars and talk events, online video exhibitions, and the Roppongi Art Night Archives. We hope that this becomes a platform for thinking about the possibilities of how art festivals and Roppongi Art Night will exist in the pandemic and post-pandemic world.

The digital programs that we will test with Roppongi Art Night Spin-off Project are a chance to demonstrate the potential for Roppongi Art Night 2021, at a point where we are still waiting to see the resolution of the COVID-19 pandemic. While Roppongi Art Night has been based in the real city of Roppongi, we will continue to see new venues emerge within the digital realm even in the post-pandemic world, and we envision moving forward in a hybrid of the real and digital.

Chairperson of Roppongi Art Night Executive Committee
Mami Kataoka (Director of Mori Art Museum)