The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is hosting "Hibiya Art Park 2026 – Timeless Phenomena: Things That Seem Like They Could Exist -", with Avex Creator Agency Inc. handling the public relations, from November 13th (Fri) to November 29th (Sun), 2026.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is implementing the "Flowers and Light Movement," which aims to offer new ways to enjoy parks through seasonal displays of flowers and light. At Hibiya Park, following last year's success, a large-scale art installation combining flowers, light, and art will once again showcase a new side of the park.
This year's "Hibiya Art Park 2026" is directed by architect Yuko Nagayama, with Kensho Tanbara participating as curatorial collaborator. Under the theme of "Timeless Phenomena: Things That Seem Like They Could Exist," the park will feature works by three artists: Takashi Kuribayashi, Rui Sasaki, and Taiki Yokote. For over 120 years, Hibiya Park has been a part of the changing landscape of Tokyo's heart. There, different kinds of time flow—one distinct from the urban pace of commuting, work, and travel—a time etched by the trees, plants, creatures, light, and wind.
This project draws attention to the time, relationships, and atmospheres that often recede into the background of everyday life, by intertwining the environment, history, and people's activities within Hibiya Park with the artworks. We offer an experience that uses art as a gateway to re-examine the familiar park landscape.
"Timeless Phenomena – Something that certainly seems plausible."
Hibiya Park opened 120 years ago as Japan's first modern Western-style park, evolving from a daimyo's residence. Located in the heart of Tokyo, it has stood alongside the accelerating pace of modernization, yet it has witnessed a unique sense of time. Parks are places in the city where we can rediscover the inherent "time" within our bodies. The changing sunlight, the growth of trees, the changing seasons symbolized by blooming flowers—we find our place in the world here, observing the passage of time.
Our bodies, in which cells are constantly regenerating, can also be described as phenomena existing in a single moment within the long flow of time. In this project, "Timeless Phenomena," the "clock time" that binds us daily is invalidated, and art creates a resonance between nature and humanity in the city, providing an opportunity to reclaim our original bodily sensations and sense of time.
The works by the participating artists in this event share a common thread: they manifest as phenomena and speak directly to the body. Each piece is scattered in its proper place, and visitors encounter them as they wander through the park. The flowers, too, appear not merely as decorations, but as mediators of humans, plants, insects and birds, and the passage of time through the seasons.
After encountering the artwork, you might perceive the park's trees, birdsong, the flowers at your feet, and the behavior of the people you pass by in a slightly different light. The relationships and atmospheres that were originally there begin to take shape through the artwork. You realize that within the familiar landscape, there are overlapping moments and activities that you had never consciously noticed before. At that moment, Hibiya Park transforms from a mere urban wasteland into a place where various beings live out their own unique time.
◾️Message from Yuko Nagayama
This year marks the third edition of the "Flower and Light Movement" held at Hibiya Park. In the first year, I participated as an artist and created "Flower Hammock" in the first flowerbed. The previous two editions were directed by the late Junya Yamamine, and various possibilities for developing art within urban parks were explored. This year, I have taken over that role, and I have reconsidered the role of urban parks in my own way, thinking about how art works can be developed within park spaces to further expand the park experience.
Hibiya Park opened 120 years ago, and in the heart of Tokyo, it has witnessed a unique time unfolding alongside the accelerating pace of modernization. This exhibition, "Timeless Phenomena," aims to liberate us from the "clock time" that binds us daily, and to create a resonance between nature and humanity within the city, providing an opportunity to reclaim our true physicality and sense of time.
The participating artists in this event share a common characteristic: their works manifest as phenomena and speak directly to the body. Visitors will encounter the artworks as they walk around the park.
After experiencing the artwork, I hope that Hibiya Park will appear not merely as an empty space in the city, but as a place where various beings live their own lives in their own way.
◾️ Exhibiting Artists
Takashi Kuribayashi
Genki Reactor – Unit 6, Otani
Born in 1968, from Nagasaki Prefecture.
Since the early 1990s, he has lived in Germany and has consistently focused on the theme of "boundaries," creating works using diverse media such as drawings, installations, and videos. Drawing on his experiences in post-East-West Germany, he focuses on multiple boundaries such as nature and humanity, visible and invisible, land and water, and inside and outside, presenting works both domestically and internationally that evoke the viewer's bodily sensations. In recent years, he has been active while traveling back and forth between Japan and Indonesia, developing projects that deal with themes surrounding the history of the land, the environment, and energy. His major exhibitions include the Islamic Art Biennale (Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, 2025), the solo exhibition "Roots" (Kanagawa Prefectural Museum of Modern Art, Hayama, 2024), Roppongi Art Night (Roppongi Hills, 2023), Documenta 15 (Kassel, Germany, 2022), Setouchi Triennale (Ibukijima, Kagawa Prefecture, 2019), the "Enfance/Childhood" exhibition (Palais de Tokyo, Paris, 2018), the solo exhibition "Water>|<Wasser" (Towada Art Center, 2012), and the "Nature Sense" exhibition (Mori Art Museum, 2010), among many others. In his recent works, through the "Genki-ro" series and "Tanker Project," he critically and poetically presents the relationship between the natural environment and social structures.
Rui Sasaki
©︎Bullseye Glass Co. / Hanmi Meyer Self-Container No.1
Born in Kochi Prefecture in 1984. Graduated from Musashino Art University in 2006 and completed a Master's program at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2010. Drawing inspiration from the nature and living environment around her, she primarily uses glass, a material that can be preserved and recorded, to explore the nature of the "faint nostalgia" she perceives in the places where she lives. She has received invitations for residencies mainly in Scandinavia and the United States, and has exhibited at museums both in Japan and abroad. Her major awards include the 33rd Rakow Commission 2018 (2019, Corning Museum of Glass / USA) and the Toyama Glass Grand Prize 2021 (2021, Toyama Glass Museum). Many of her works are held in the collections of the National Gallery of Norway (Norway), the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, and the National Crafts Museum, among others. Recent major exhibitions include participation in the "Aichi International Art Festival 2025" and the solo exhibition "Subtle Intimacy: Here and There" (2023, Portland Japanese Garden / USA). Her work has been featured in the New York Times and other publications. Currently based in Ishikawa Prefecture.
Taiki Yokote
Moku/ Floating Rubble (when the cat's away, the mice will play)
Born in 1998. Raised in Zushi City, Kanagawa Prefecture. Graduated from the Department of Sculpture, Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts in 2021. Completed graduate studies in Sculpture at the Graduate School of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts in 2025.
Taiki Yokote's practice begins with emotions stirred by the scenery and events around him. Presence and absence, nonverbal communication, subtle existences and phenomena that cannot be grasped by the eye. Yokote focuses on matter and the invisible interactions behind it, and with a careful gaze, he brings to light the existence of individuals buried within the collective and the diverse flow of time. In a space where humans and non-humans, present and memory, reality and imagination flow together with nature, this quiet resonance with others is an attitude of looking towards the in-between*, and promotes a deeper connection between us and society and the world.
His major exhibitions include to make today lovely, too / to make today lonely, too (CON_ + parcel, Tokyo, 2026), Minor Attractions 2025 (The Mandrake Hotel, London, 2025), Frieze Seoul 2025 (COEX, Seoul, 2025), BOLMETEUS (SAI, Tokyo, 2024), until soil unites (CON_, Tokyo, 2024), Rokko Meets Art 2023 beyond (Mt. Rokko, Hyogo, 2023), even a worm will turn (parcel, Tokyo, 2022), Planet Zamza (former site of Kodaka Bookbinding Industry, Tokyo, 2022), and many others.
Yuko Nagayama (Director)
Born in Tokyo in 1975. Worked at Jun Aoki & Associates from 1998 to 2002. Established Yuko Nagayama Architects in 2002. Visiting Professor at Musashino Art University from 2020 to 2024. Vice Chairperson of the Good Design Award Jury from 2023 to 2025. Major works include "LOUIS VUITTON Daimaru Kyoto Store", "House on a Hill", "Teshima Yokoo Museum", "Megami no Mori Central Garden (Hall and Complex in Kobuchizawa)", "Japan Pavilion at Dubai International Expo", "Grand Patio on the 1st Floor of Tamagawa Takashimaya SC Main Building", "JINS PARK Maebashi", "House with a Membrane Roof", "Tokyu Kabukicho Tower", "Women's Pavilion in collaboration with Cartier" at Osaka-Kansai Expo, and "NOMO Country" at the Panasonic Group Pavilion. Recipient of numerous awards, including the L'Oréal Award Encouragement Prize, the JCD Design Award Encouragement Prize (2005), the AR Awards Excellence Award (2006/"House on a Hill"), Architectural Record Design Vanguard (2012), the JIA Newcomer Award (2014/"Teshima Yokoo Museum"), the Yamanashi Prefecture Architectural Culture Award, the JCD Design Award Silver Prize (2017), the Tokyo Architectural Award Excellence Award (2018/"Goddess Forest Central Garden"), the Illuminating Engineering Institute of Japan Lighting Design Award Grand Prize (2021/"Tamagawa Takashimaya SC Main Building 1F Grand Patio"), the World Architecture Festival 2022 Highly Commended (2022), the iF Design Award Winner (2023 "JINS PARK Maebashi" and 2026 "AOI CELESTIE COFFEE ROASTERY"), and the 76th Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology Award for New Artists (Art B category). Currently, projects such as the "TOKYO TORCH Torch Tower" project in front of Tokyo Station's Tokiwabashi Bridge are underway. His published works include "Spinning Stories from Architecture" (Graphic-sha) and "Architecture as a Catalyst" (Shueisha Shinsho).
Kensho Tanbara (Curatorial Collaborator)
Writer and curator. Born in Tokyo in 1992. Graduated from Harvard University with a degree in Art History. After working as an artist in Boston, focusing on performance art related to rites of passage and rituals in contemporary communities, she returned to Japan in 2017 and has been active as an artist and curator in the country ever since. Her work focuses on site-specific pieces and exhibitions, aiming to elicit changes in the viewer's perspective. In addition to her artistic and curatorial activities, she has established the art space "Shin-Okubo UGO" and the Open Art Consortium. She is also the program director for "Sono Aida" and a part-time lecturer at Tokyo Polytechnic University. His major exhibitions include Meta Fair #01 (2022, Sono Aida #Shin-Yurakucho, planning, operation, and curation), "Scenes of Debugging" (2022, ANB Tokyo, curation), "Unmanned Ark" (Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival 2023, curation), "Back to Thread" (FUJI TEXTILE WEEK 2023, Yamanashi), and "Takenaka Corporation Exhibition: Building Glasses, Town Glasses Exhibition – From Space to Insects, A Way of Looking at Architecture in Scale" (2025, VS., Osaka).
■Venue Map
■Market
During the event, you can enjoy food while appreciating art. Please check the website for details on the dates and times of the vendors.
The image is for illustrative purposes only.
■ What is the "Flower and Light Movement"?
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government is implementing the "Flowers and Light Movement," which offers new ways to enjoy parks through seasonal displays of flowers and light. Hibiya Park, Japan's first modern Western-style park, has been a source of new culture since its opening in 1903. This year, too, the park will present a program that incorporates elements of "art" into flowers and light. Through expressions unique to an open public space, we invite you to experience the new form of Hibiya Park as a place of value for each and every person.
"Flower and Light Movement" Special Website
https://www.tokyo-park.or.jp/special/flowerandlight/index.html
◼︎ Overview of "Hibiya Art Park 2026 – Timeless Phenomena: Things That Seem Like They Could Really Exist -"
Date: November 13th (Friday) to November 29th (Sunday), 2026
Venue: Hibiya Park (Hibiya Park, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo)
Exhibiting Artists: Takashi Kuribayashi, Rui Sasaki, Taiki Yokote Director: Yuko Nagayama Curatorial Collaborator: Kensho Tanbara Organizer: Tokyo Metropolitan Government (Flower and Light Movement)
Cooperation: Tokyo Metropolitan Parks Association
HP: https://www.tokyo-park.or.jp/special/flowerandlight/hibiya2026autumn/index.html
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/hibiya_park_art/
*Events and some services may be canceled, suspended, or changed due to weather-related disasters, etc.
*Please check our official website/Instagram for the latest information before visiting.
[From Avex Creator Agency Inc. press release ]
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