【Meet Up ECoC! – Face to Face -】Matching Session at Creative Connections on 4 July
A Special Day Connecting European Capitals of Culture and Japanese Artists
Thank you very much for your application to this event.
We received an overwhelming number of applications, far exceeding our expectations. As a result, due to limited capacity, we regret that we were unable to accommodate everyone. We sincerely apologize to those who were not able to reserve tickets.
This event presents a valuable opportunity to foster new collaborations between Europe and Japan through the framework of the European Capitals of Culture (2024–2029). It will serve as a platform for direct exchange between representatives of the European Capitals of Culture and Japanese artists. For the details of guest speakers and European Capitals of Culture participating in each session, please refer to the program detail at the bottom of this page.
The event focuses on the following four fields:
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Traditional Crafts
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Media/Visual Arts
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Performing Arts (Dance/Theatre)
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Art Urbanism
The program begins in the “Salon Zone,” where participants will attend approximately one hour of presentations for each field.
Afterward, participants will move to the adjacent “Communication Zone,” where they can join the matchmaking sessions at various booths.
Each of the four fields will have a dedicated booth. At each booth, small groups of five to six people will engage in roundtable discussions.
Participants will rotate through the booths every ten minutes, allowing for multiple exchanges.
We sincerely hope that this event, as a new platform for connecting European and Japanese arts, will offer all participants meaningful encounters and fruitful learning experiences.
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<Program Details>
9:15 Doors Open / 10:00 Starts
10:10 - ”Traditional Crafts” Session
[Speakers]
- Representatives from the ECoC
(Liepaja 2027 (Latvia), Chemnitz 2025 (Germany), Budweis 2028 (Czechia), Bad Ischl-Salzkammergut 2024 (Austria)) - Takanori KAWAI – Managing Director, The Association for the Promotion of Traditional Craft Industries
- Izumi HAYASHI – Curator at the Museum of Modern Ceramic Art, Gifu
11:20 - ”Media/Visual Arts” Session
[Speakers]
- Representatives from the ECoC
(Oulu 2026 (Finland), Skopje 2028 (North Macedonia), Bourges 2028 (France), Trencin 2026 (Slovakia), Evora 2027 (Portugal)) - Yasuko YUBISUI – Curator, NTT InterCommunication Center [ICC]
- Hiroko KIMURA-MYOKAM – Curator, Archivist, Representative of Eizo Workshop G.K.
13:00 - ”Performing Arts(Dance/Theater)” Session
[Speakers]
- Representatives from the ECoC
(Bourges2028 (France), Chemnitz 2025 (Germany), Budweis 2028 (Czechia), Evora 2027 (Portugal)) - Eri KARATSU – Artistic Director and Executive Director of Aichi Prefectural Art Theater / Artistic Director of Dance Base Yokohama
- Yukako OGURA – Program Director, ROHM Theatre Kyoto
- Hiroaki UMEDA – Choreographer, Dancer, Visual Artist
14:30 - ”Art Urbanism” Session
[Speakers]
- Representatives from the ECoC
(Oulu 2026(Finland), Liepaja2027 (Latvia), Bad Ischl-Salzkammergut 2024 (Austria), Trencin 2026 (Slovakia)) - Yukako ISHIKAWA – Urbanist / Co-Director, for Cities / Director, Social Green Design / watage
- Taisuke KOYAMA – Photographer / Representative of TOKYO PHOTOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
Estimated to conclude at 16:30