Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2027 Opens February 5 at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum; New Works by Four Commissioned Artists to Premiere

The international festival of moving images and art “Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2027 (provisional title)” will be held from Friday, February 5 to Sunday, February 21, 2027, at the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum in Ebisu, Tokyo. According to the museum’s exhibition page, the venues are the B1F, 2F and 3F exhibition galleries, and only the 3F gallery will continue until March 22. The name is provisional, and the overall theme, curator, participating artists and prices had not been announced as of October 20.

A festival of moving images since 2009, commissioning new works from emerging artists

According to the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, the Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions has been held once a year in Ebisu since its first edition in 2009. It is an international festival that combines exhibitions, screenings, live performances and talk sessions. In recent years it has also focused on social inclusion initiatives, discovering and supporting emerging artists, strengthening ties with the local community and holding workshops. The museum says it aims to enrich the festival as “Ebisu’s largest art festival, where anyone can enjoy moving images.”

Since 2023, the festival has also run the “Commission Project.” It commissions emerging artists based in Japan to create video works, with the aim of showing through those works what a “new Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions” might be, the festival’s most fundamental question. International outreach and the cultivation of new cultural value are also among its stated goals.

What can visitors see? Four artists presenting new works

According to the festival’s official website, four finalists were selected for the third Commission Project and announced at a symposium on February 11, 2026. Each of the four is working on a new video work, and the completed works are scheduled to be presented at the Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2027. The official website introduces the four as follows.

• Umi Ishihara: Intersects personal memory and social issues, shedding light on the life histories of marginalized people.

• Ai Iwane: Has captured historical and social themes from her own perspective, based on meticulous field research.

• Ryo Orikasa: Creates animation using literary works and language itself as motifs.

• Koichi Sato: Creates works based on fieldwork on the relationship between industrial and consumer society and the natural environment and living things.

The official website says a jury will review the exhibited works during the festival to decide a special prize, and the winner will be offered the opportunity of a special exhibition at the following year’s festival, Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2028.

The previous festival (2026)

The previous edition, Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2026, was held for 16 days from February 6 to 23, 2026. Its overall theme was “Polyphonic Voices Bathed in Sunlight” (the Japanese title translates as “To Your Sound”). The main curator was Chiu Yu-Hsuan. In addition to the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, venues included various locations in Yebisu Garden Place and partner sites in the area; exhibitions were free, while some programs such as screenings were paid (according to the organizers).

In the 3F gallery, a special exhibition by Haruka Komori, who received the special prize in the second Commission Project, and a display from the Tokyo Metropolitan Collection, both linked to the overall theme, continued until March 22. The festival was organized by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture) and Nikkei Inc. On November 7, 2025, the organizers announced that the festival would be held, along with the overall theme and the first group of participating artists, and on January 20, 2026, they announced program details and more than 30 participating artists and groups.

Access, and exhibitions on view at the museum now

The Tokyo Photographic Art Museum is in Yebisu Garden Place, about a 7-minute walk from the East Exit of JR Ebisu Station and about a 10-minute walk from Ebisu Station on the Tokyo Metro Hibiya Line. The museum has no parking. It is closed on Mondays (if Monday is a public holiday, it opens and closes the following weekday instead), and the festival’s opening hours have not yet been announced.

Until January 17, 2027, the museum is showing “Reassembling: Contemporary Japanese Photography vol. 23” on the 3rd floor and “Duet: Asian Contemporary” on the 2nd floor. On the basement floor, the “50th Kimura Ihei Award Commemorative Photography Exhibition” runs from October 31 to November 23.

Editor’s perspective

What is certain about the 2027 edition at this point is the dates and venue, and that new works by the four artists of the Commission Project are scheduled to be presented. In the case of the third round, the four artists selected in 2026 present new works in 2027, and the special prize winner gets the opportunity for a special exhibition in 2028. It can be seen as a system through which the festival engages with artists over several years.

For the previous edition, the decision to hold the festival and the overall theme were announced on November 7, 2025. As of October 20, no timing had been given for announcing the overall theme or participating artists for 2027.

Overview

Name: Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2027 (provisional title)
Dates: Friday, February 5 – Sunday, February 21, 2027 (3F gallery only until March 22)
Closed: Mondays (if Monday is a public holiday, open and closed the following weekday)
Hours: Not announced (as of October 20)
Venue: B1F, 2F and 3F exhibition galleries, Tokyo Photographic Art Museum
Address: Yebisu Garden Place, 1-13-3 Mita, Meguro-ku, Tokyo
Admission: To be determined
Overall theme and participating artists: Not announced (as of October 20)
Organizer: Not listed (the previous edition was organized by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum (Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture) and Nikkei Inc.)
Inquiries: Tokyo Photographic Art Museum, 03-3280-0099
Official website: https://topmuseum.jp/exhibition/5425/
*Information as of October 20, 2026. Please check the official website for the latest information.

*Top image: Exterior of the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum (photo: Rs1421, CC BY-SA 3.0, from Wikimedia Commons)

*This article was compiled by the TOKYO ART SPHERE editorial team based on the official website of the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum and announcements on the official website of the Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions (February 13, 2026, and others).

Text: TOKYO ART SPHERE Editorial Team