‘Art Rhizome KYOTO 2025
“Kyoto Wander 2: A Transient Journey to the Everlasting”’

‘Art Rhizome KYOTO 2025
“Kyoto Wander 2: A Transient Journey to the Everlasting”’

Sep 13th–Nov 18th, 2025
10 Venues Across Kyoto City (Karimoku Commons Kyoto / Kyoto City Hall / Kyoto Prefectural Library / SIGHTS KYOTO / THE GENERAL KYOTO Shijo Shinmachi / Sfera / HOSTEL NINIROOM / HOTEL RINGS KYOTO / MAEDA COFFEE BUNPAKU–TEN / Mitsui Garden Hotel Kyoto Sanjo PREMIER)
Kyoto

Artists: IYANAGA Yuriko / KOBAYASHI Futa / SAMEJIMA Yui / TANAKA Sara / TANIZAWA Sawako / NAKAMURA Kano / HATAKOSHI Ayaka / FUJINO Yumiko / MIYATA Yukino / MORIYAMA Saki / YAMAZAKI Yoshihiko / YAMAMOTO Mamie
Client: Kyoto City
Sponsored By: Agency for Cultural Affairs
Curatorial Team: KANAZAWA Kodama / MASUI Shinichiro / SAKURAOKA Satoshi / HUANG Mu-Wei
Assistants: OZAWA Alice / O LamLam / WADA Taiyo
Graphic designer: TSUNASIMA Takuya
Photo: OKA haruka

Official website

  • Art Consulting
  • Curation/Planning
  • Management/Coordination
  • Writing

A Citywide Exhibition of Emerging Artists in Kyoto, Interwoven through an Overseas Curator’s Travelogue

Art Rhizome KYOTO is an art event showcasing works by emerging artists across various venues in Kyoto, including accommodations, shops, and public spaces. Building on last year's foundation, the 2025 edition further explores the theme of "Gekiryo" (逆旅)—an archaic term for an inn that welcomes travelers—presenting the work of 12 artists across 10 venues throughout Kyoto. Code-a-Machine provided comprehensive oversight for the project, managing the selection and coordination of both venues and artists, while providing strategic consultation and creative direction for the installation.
For this edition of Art Rhizome KYOTO, we invited Penwadee Nophaket Manont, the Chief Curator at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre, to serve as our guest "traveler" writer. Her travelogue, which traces a journey through all 10 venues, vividly captures the experience of travel, the encounter with art, and the expansion of our lives in the "here and now." This project offers a unique opportunity to rediscover Kyoto and the artists connected to the city through a sophisticated international lens.

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Travelogue Kyoto Wander 2

https://artrhizome.kyoto/kw25_travelogue

（From the Preface of the Archive Book）

Art Rhizome KYOTO is a site-specific art event sponsored by the City of Kyoto, held at venues that do not typically host art exhibitions and aimed at an audience who may not necessarily be art enthusiasts. For this fifth edition, we have built upon the approach established in the previous year. The curatorial team—a group of art specialists—collaborated closely on everything from venue selection and communication with artists to the exhibition layout. Through this integrated effort, the ten distinct venues are brought together to form a single, cohesive exhibition.

The theme “Gekiryo Kyoto” (逆旅京都) is carried over from last year. The term “Gekiryo,” an archaic word for “inn,” symbolizes Kyoto as a city that has welcomed countless people, cultures, and events throughout its millennium-long history. The theme also reflects our own state—the fact that we happen to be gathered here, together, for a moment.

A defining feature of this year’s event is the travelogue by Penwadee Nophaket Manont, the Chief Curator at the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre. We invited Manont as a guest “traveler” to visit all ten venues and document her journey. Her writings capture the artists, the artworks, and the atmospheres of the exhibition spaces, woven together with her impressions of Kyoto. Through her texts, the experience of travel, the encounter with art, and the expansion of our lives in the “here and now” are vividly brought to life.

Manont’s writings, however, are not intended to confine our interpretation of the artworks. Instead, they quietly communicate essential questions about the nature of learning while traveling, encountering the new, and the journey of living. We hope that this book transcends mere documentation of the event, intertwining with the unfolding life of each reader who turns its pages.

Lastly, we would like to express our heartfelt gratitude to the participating artists, to the facilities that provided beautiful spaces as venues, and to all the people who made this project possible.

On behalf of the Art Rhizome KYOTO 2025 Gekiryo Kyoto Curatorial Team,

Kodama Kanazawa (Contemporary Art Curator)

For more exhibition view, please visit the official Instagram.