Art Week Tokyo's Video Programme Asks What Travel Guides Leave Out
Travel guides decide what a visitor sees, and what they miss. Art Week Tokyo's video programme, titled "Your Travel Guide To…", turns that idea into a set of short films and videos. The section opens with Art Week Tokyo's 2026 run, which takes place from 4 to 8 November in Japan's capital.
The programme is made up of single-channel moving image works, meaning videos shown on one screen. According to The Art Newspaper, the works explore what gets mapped and what is left out of view. X Zhu-Nowell, executive director and chief curator of the Rockbund Art Museum in Shanghai, is the curator of the video section.
Ten artists are included. Five are based in Japan, and one belongs to the Japanese diaspora, meaning he or she has Japanese roots and lives abroad. Zhu-Nowell has worked with four of the ten artists before.
Among the names is Berlin-based Kandis Williams, who has never shown in Japan before. Her video A Travel Guide: Black Gothic in South Korean Horror (2025) is part of the programme. New York-based Ken Okiishi contributes Brian at Home (2020–25). He Xiangyu, who works in Berlin and Beijing, is also included. Linda Iha, Fuyuhiko Takata and Atsushi Yamamoto, all based in Japan, round out the list.
The programme also looks back. It includes work by two artists who have died: Keiichi Tanaami (1936–2024) and Hiroyuki Oki (1964–2025). Oki's Buddy Matsumae's Picture Diary, made in 1988, is on the programme.
Art Week Tokyo is a citywide event in which galleries and other venues open their doors to visitors during the same week. The organisation's website says a record 56 facilities are taking part this year. The site also shows the phrase "in collaboration with" next to the Art Basel name, the Swiss art fair. Atsuko Ninagawa is a co-founder of the event, according to Galerie magazine.
The video works are drawn from the galleries taking part, so visitors can see them alongside the wider week. Zhu-Nowell is also one of three speakers at the week's symposium, along with Gen Adachi and Rasha Salti. Their session is called "Unquiet as It's Kept: Art and the Afterlives of History."
For visitors planning a trip, the practical point is simple: the video works are part of the week's public programme, and the dates are 4 to 8 November. Anyone who has ever bought a guidebook will find the programme's question familiar. Who decides which streets appear on the map, and which do not?
