Sapporo International Art Festival 2027 (SIAF2027) will take place in Sapporo from Saturday, January 16 to Sunday, February 21, 2027, a total of 37 days. The festival's theme is PLANET SNOW, and its 11 venues around the city will be turned into a journey through an unknown snowy planet.
The lineup of 34 participating artists and 9 partner organizations across the 11 venues has been decided. The festival also features night programs that continue after dark, where the cold and the excitement of the crowds meet, and a collaboration with the Sapporo White Illumination (さっぽろホワイトイルミネーション) that brings an extra festive feel to the winter city.
Advance tickets for Sapporo Civic Gallery (札幌市民ギャラリー), the core venue of the festival's story, go on sale on October 27 at a discounted price.
Official website: https://siaf.jp/
Highlight Events
At the welcome event on January 16, past festival directors will join the current directors. Yoshihide Otomo (大友良英), the guest director of SIAF2017, will also perform at the opening live. Many other events and workshops are planned during the festival.
See the "Highlight Events for the 37 Days of PLANET SNOW" section below for the schedule.
Welcome to PLANET SNOW
The festival's director team describes PLANET SNOW as an unknown planet that visitors will soon reach, a world of snow.
SIAF2027 takes the "multiplication" of art with a wide range of fields, including technology, science, history and fashion, as its driving force. Starting from snow, its imagination extends beyond the Earth and out into space. In this world, everyday urban functions and facilities of Sapporo are transformed into "certain functions and facilities that exist on PLANET SNOW," inviting visitors into a grand world of make-believe.
Traveling across the 11 venues in this snow-covered world, visitors will encounter a variety of works:
- A giant robot that speaks heavily of the memory of human history
- An android that looks back from the future and asks about the essence of humanity
- Haute couture inspired by the harsh natural environment, confronting the origin of clothing
- Mysterious creatures made from driftwood and animal bones, and large glowing rocks that appear in a snowy plaza
The director team says these encounters should lead visitors' usual viewpoints and senses to different places. A special guidebook, the "PLANET SNOW Field Guide" (プラネット・スノー フィールドガイド), which supports the journey like a compass, is currently in preparation. Night programs, hands-on workshops and events with a variety of guests will make the experience on the snowy planet even more multilayered.
The director team's message closes by inviting visitors to explore the world of PLANET SNOW together and to discover for themselves what kind of place this planet is.
The message is from the SIAF2027 Director Team (Hideaki Ogawa (小川秀明), 細川麻沙美, 漆 崇博 and 丸田知明), dated October 27, 2026.
Message from the Mayor of Sapporo
Katsuhiro Akimoto (秋元克広), Mayor of Sapporo and chair of the Sapporo International Art Festival Executive Committee, says that this SIAF is meant to let visitors not only view works but also walk through the snow-covered city and encounter art in many places.
At the Sapporo Snow Festival Odori Site, visitors can enjoy giant art works that they can see and touch. In addition, night programs that light up the winter evening are planned outdoors at the Sapporo Science Center (札幌市青少年科学館) and Sapporo City Archives (札幌市資料館, the former Sapporo Court of Appeals building). Including these, all 11 venues each have their own character.
The mayor hopes that local residents will make new discoveries in their familiar city, and that visitors from afar will stay in Sapporo for a while and fully enjoy food and winter scenery along with art.
SIAF2027 Participating Artists and Partners (as of October 27, 2026)
- Sapporo Civic Gallery (札幌市民ギャラリー): 荒牧 悠, Cecilia BENGOLEA, Fanja BOUTS, CHEN Xi, Alexandra Daisy GINSBERG, 川上りえ, Akkarawin KRAIRIKSH, 森 夕香, The Observatory, Frode OLDEREID and Thomas KVAM, Bagus PANDEGA, Shigechan Land (シゲチャンランド, 大西重成), 若木くるみ
- Sapporo Science Center (札幌市青少年科学館): 保手濱 拓, 栗林 隆, Boris LABBÉ, 内海昭子, 和田ながら
- Hokkaido Museum (北海道博物館): 檜皮一彦, 石黒 浩 / いのちの未来研究所, マユンキキ
- Moerenuma Park (モエレ沼公園): fragmentin, 中里唯馬. Official Partner: 藝術と技術の対話 (DAT)
- Sapporo City Archives (札幌市資料館, the former Sapporo Court of Appeals building): 秋元さなえ, フジ森, ゴッドスコーピオン, 佐竹真紀. Initiative Partner: Wacom Co., Ltd.
- Chuo Ward Complex Government Building (中央区複合庁舎): いわいとしお (岩井俊雄)
- Sapporo Cultural Arts Community Center SCARTS (札幌文化芸術交流センター SCARTS): Initiative Partners: KOKUYO Co., Ltd., Sony Group Corporation. Official Partner: Japan Graphic Designers Association, Hokkaido Block (公益社団法人日本グラフィックデザイン協会 北海道ブロック, JAGDA Hokkaido)
- Sapporo Snow Festival Odori Site (さっぽろ雪まつり大通会場): ENESS. Initiative Partner: Nikken Sekkei Ltd.
- Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art (北海道立近代美術館): Artists in the museum's collection
- Sapporo Odori Underground Gallery 500m Museum (札幌大通地下ギャラリー 500m美術館): 大西康明, 鈴木悠哉
- AOAO SAPPORO: ADA aquascape creators (ADA水景クリエイター), ENESS
- Projects: 檜皮一彦, LAUSBUB. Initiative Partners: 株式会社地球の歩き方, Nikkei Inc. (株式会社日本経済新聞社), Startbahn, Inc. (スタートバーン株式会社)
SIAF2027 theme song "holo" (ホロ) by LAUSBUB released
The theme song, created by the Sapporo-based music unit LAUSBUB, has been completed and is featured in the SIAF2027 promotional video.
Venue Concepts and Exhibition Details (11 Venues)
The festival stretches from the bright snowy daytime into the night, in the world of PLANET SNOW.
DAYTIME: Venues to Visit by Day
Sapporo Cultural Arts Community Center SCARTS (札幌文化芸術交流センター SCARTS) - Free admission
SCARTS serves as the base of SIAF2027. Sony Group Corporation's immersive installation 《OPTICAL DRIFT》 will have its world premiere here. A new information center produced by KOKUYO, with the theme "between viewing and sightseeing," serves as the starting point. From there, the "SIAF Studio" opens as a place where information and people come and go and where the future is envisioned together.
Sony Group Corporation 《OPTICAL DRIFT》
The new information center produced by KOKUYO
Sapporo Civic Gallery (札幌市民ギャラリー) - Paid admission
Shigechan Land (シゲチャンランド), a little-known private museum in Tsubetsu, Hokkaido, brings a large off-site exhibition that will be shown only this winter. Mysterious creatures gather in Sapporo. From Norway comes 《Requiem for an Exit》, a giant face robot about 4 m tall. The venue is described as an entrance to a world of many worlds that is not limited to humans alone.
Shigechan Land (シゲチャンランド, 大西重成)
Hokkaido Museum (北海道博物館) - Paid admission
An android by Hiroshi Ishiguro (石黒 浩) / いのちの未来研究所 visits the Hokkaido Museum. As visitors tour the museum through the android's gaze, the permanent exhibition rooms turn into a space for looking at things anew from the future. Through that perspective, the exhibition approaches the question "What is a human being?"
石黒 浩 / いのちの未来研究所 《ヤマトロイド》 ©FUTURE OF LIFE
Sapporo Science Center (札幌市青少年科学館) - Paid admission
Period: Tuesday, January 5 to Sunday, February 21, 2027
Theater, painting, animation and an experiential work that uses the whole space: four sets of devices by four artists transform the usual science center experience into a small journey. The plaza in front of the science center also hosts programs that can only be experienced outdoors in winter.
Sapporo Odori Underground Gallery 500m Museum (札幌大通地下ギャラリー 500m美術館) - Free admission
Period: Saturday, January 16 to Wednesday, March 24, 2027
In this space that continues like an underground passage, visitors can take their time enjoying the works even while snow falls above ground. Two artists, 大西康明 and 鈴木悠哉, were selected from more than 80 applications from Japan and abroad, and each will realize an exhibition plan for a work 48 m in total length.
Moerenuma Park (モエレ沼公園) - Free admission
The collection 《GLACIER》 by fashion designer Yuima Nakazato (中里唯馬) will be shown in Japan for the first time, after being presented in Paris, France and Oulu, Finland. fragmentin of Switzerland will present a new work inspired by Sapporo's snowy landscape. An international project in the field of art and technology also joins the venue, and, on the stage of a glass pyramid on the snowfield, the program looks at the environment surrounding humans and its future.
中里唯馬 《GLACIER》 Photo by Vera LAKOVAARA Courtesy of Oulu Art Museum
Sapporo City Archives (札幌市資料館, the former Sapporo Court of Appeals building) - Free admission
This venue is the school of the future, where the existing exhibition rooms turn into an "audiovisual room" and a "production room." It offers experiential works using AR and programming by four artists connected to Hokkaido, and a "Future Art and Craft Room" (未来の図工室) presented with Wacom, creating a campus full of learning and creativity.
Chuo Ward Complex Government Building (中央区複合庁舎) - Free admission
Toshio Iwai (いわいとしお, 岩井俊雄), author of the picture book series 『100かいだてのいえ』, creates an exciting space for creation and exhibition. A workshop invites visitors to imagine the lives of the residents of the snowy planet together and build a "Snow 100-Story House" (雪の100かいだてのいえ). The venue also plans to introduce Iwai's own ideas and the process of developing them.
いわいとしお 《みんなでつくろう！雪の100かいだてのいえ》 2026
Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art (北海道立近代美術館) - Paid admission
Period: Saturday, January 9 to Sunday, April 11, 2027
Titled 「雪々（せつせつ）と」, this exhibition takes the theme of snow, which is inseparable from winter, and looks not only at its beauty but also at its terror and severity. It introduces a variety of expressions of snow from the museum's collection, including paintings, ukiyo-e, glass and ceramics.
NIGHTTIME: Venues and Programs to Enjoy After Dark
Sapporo Snow Festival Odori Site (さっぽろ雪まつり大通会場) - Free admission
Period: Thursday, February 4 to Sunday, February 21, 2027 (Odori Park, West 2-chome)
This is a snowy plaza where everyone gathers. The large-scale installation 《IWAGUMI Air Scape》 by the art and technology studio ENESS appears here, with a group of rock-shaped balloons up to 14 m tall. Together with the venue environment design by Nikken Sekkei, it changes the scenery of the Sapporo Snow Festival into a fantastical one.
ENESS 《IWAGUMI Air Scape》 Photo by Finbarr FALLON
AOAO SAPPORO - Paid admission
Period: Saturday, January 9 to Sunday, February 21, 2027
The "nature aquarium," which incorporates ecosystems and the beauty of nature, was the source of inspiration for ENESS's 《IWAGUMI Air Scape》. Encounter the life in the water and reflect on nature and its cycles. In addition to the aquarium's permanent exhibits, ENESS's work will also appear here as a special feature.
ADA水景クリエイター 《風薫る石景》 2023 ©AQUA DESIGN AMANO
SIAF2027 x Sapporo White Illumination (さっぽろホワイトイルミネーション)
Period: Saturday, January 9 to Thursday, January 28, 2027
SIAF takes part in this popular winter event by providing the direction. At the Sapporo White Illumination Nakajima Park site, ENESS's latest work 《SNOWFISH》 will make its world premiere.
ENESS 《SNOWFISH》
Programs to Enjoy After Dark
At Sapporo City Archives (札幌市資料館, the former Sapporo Court of Appeals building), an Important Cultural Property, artists' video works and other projections will be shown in the evening on the historic walls built with Sapporo soft stone (札幌軟石).
A projection test at Sapporo City Archives
In the Shin-Sapporo district, where the Sapporo Science Center is located, the experiential art work 《元気炉》 by Takashi Kuribayashi (栗林 隆), an artist who continues to create and present work around the world, will appear. On multiple days during the exhibition period (January 16 to February 21, 2027), winter-only programs that can be enjoyed from daytime into the night will be held.
栗林 隆 《元気炉―初号基 富山》 2020 (下山芸術の森発電所美術館, Nyuzen, Toyama Prefecture) Photo by SHIZUNO Rai
Highlight Events for the 37 Days of PLANET SNOW
Saturday, January 16: Welcome to PLANET SNOW (ようこそ、プラネット・スノーへ)
Venue: Multiple SIAF2027 venues | 1:00 PM to 5:00 PM (tentative)
Past SIAF directors join the SIAF2027 director team to greet visitors at the venues. Which director visitors will meet at which venue is a surprise.
Saturday, January 16: Opening Live
Venue: 札幌近松 | From 7:00 PM (tentative)
Yoshihide Otomo (大友良英) and the Hokkaido Big Band (北海道ビッグバンド) will perform on the opening night.
Monday, January 18: Local Resonance - Resonating with Mobility and Locality (ローカル・レゾナンス｜移動と地域性への共鳴)
Venue: Sapporo Library and Information Center (札幌市図書・情報館) | 6:00 PM to 7:30 PM
Through a Japan-Europe residency exchange, the directors of both bases and participating artists discuss the possibilities of AIR (Artist-in-Residence) and other topics.
Organizer: Delegation of the European Union to Japan. Cooperation: Tenjinyama Art Studio, Nida Art Colony (Lithuania)
Saturday, January 23: How to Walk PLANET SNOW (プラネット・スノーの歩き方)
Venue: SCARTS Studio | 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM
A collaboration talk between the editor-in-chief of 地球の歩き方 and the creative director of SIAF2027.
Saturday, February 13: STEAM STUDY FES
Venue: Ward Residents' Hall, Chuo Ward Complex Government Building (中央区複合庁舎 区民ホール) | 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM
A full day of workshops and talk programs on the theme of STEAM (science, technology, engineering, art and mathematics).
Sunday, February 21: Closing Talk
Venue: SCARTS Studio | 5:00 PM to 6:30 PM (tentative)
The SIAF2027 director team and the Mayor of Sapporo look back on the 37-day festival.
Artist talks and workshops are also planned, and the event schedule during the festival will be updated on the official website as needed.
「みんなでウパシテ！！2027冬の札幌アート巡り」
This program invites visitors to tour winter art events in Sapporo. In addition to collaborations with cultural facilities, universities and others in Sapporo that hold events during the SIAF2027 period, collaborations with 13 events selected through an open call that respond to the theme of SIAF2027 have been decided. The collaborating events are introduced on the SIAF official website.
Ticket Information (Sapporo Civic Gallery)
Admission tickets for Sapporo Civic Gallery go on sale on October 27 on the ticket page of the SIAF official website. Tickets allow entry as many times as you like during the festival. Advance tickets are sold online only.
For the other paid venues (Sapporo Science Center, Hokkaido Museum, Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art and AOAO SAPPORO), the admission fee of each venue is required. Tickets can be purchased at each venue's ticket window or on each venue's ticket sales site.
| Ticket type | Advance (online) | During the festival (online) | During the festival (at the window on the day) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sales period | Oct. 27, 2026 to Jan. 15, 2027 | Jan. 16 to Feb. 21, 2027 | Jan. 16 to Feb. 21, 2027 |
| General | ¥1,600 | ¥2,000 | ¥2,400 |
| Citizens / Hokkaido residents | ¥1,200 | ¥1,600 | ¥2,000 |
| Students (high school and above) | ¥900 | ¥1,200 | ¥1,600 |
| Junior high school students and under | Free | Free | Free |
| Special discount (holders of a disability certificate, etc. plus 1 companion) | Free | Free | Free |
PLANET SNOW Field Guide (プラネット・スノー フィールドガイド)
The "PLANET SNOW Field Guide" has been decided for release to deepen the experience. It includes introductions to the works by the artists and special information that cannot be found on the website or at the venues. It is planned to be sold at multiple venues.
Accommodation Plans with SIAF Admission Tickets Now on Sale
With the cooperation of SIAF2027 partner hotels, special accommodation plans are on sale that include a Sapporo Civic Gallery ticket and benefits such as SIAF2027-limited novelties. Guests staying at a partner hotel can enjoy a special art journey that can only be experienced in winter Sapporo, with the Field Guide in hand.
Sapporo International Art Festival 2027 Overview (as of October 27, 2026)
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Name | 札幌国際芸術祭2027 (Japanese) Sapporo International Art Festival 2027 (English) Usa Mosir un Askay utar Sapporo otta Uekarpa 2027 (Ainu) (ウサ モシリ ウン アシカイ ウタラ サッポロ オッタ ウエカラパ) |
| Abbreviation | SIAF2027 |
| Theme | PLANET SNOW - upas mintar / upas nociw (ウパシ ミンタラ / ウパシ ノチウ) |
| Period | Saturday, January 16 to Sunday, February 21, 2027 Some venues have closed days. The following 5 venues have different periods. - Sapporo Science Center: Tuesday, January 5 to Sunday, February 21 - Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art: Saturday, January 9 to Sunday, April 11 - Sapporo Odori Underground Gallery 500m Museum: Saturday, January 16 to Wednesday, March 24 - Sapporo Snow Festival Odori Site: Thursday, February 4 to Sunday, February 21 (Odori Park, West 2-chome) - AOAO SAPPORO: Saturday, January 9 to Sunday, February 21 |
| Venues | Sapporo Civic Gallery, Sapporo Science Center, Hokkaido Museum, Moerenuma Park, Sapporo City Archives (the former Sapporo Court of Appeals building), Chuo Ward Complex Government Building, Sapporo Cultural Arts Community Center SCARTS, Sapporo Snow Festival Odori Site, Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, Sapporo Odori Underground Gallery 500m Museum, AOAO SAPPORO Special collaboration venue: Sapporo White Illumination Nakajima Park site (Period: Saturday, January 9 to Thursday, January 28, 2027) |
| Artists, Initiative Partners, Official Partners | See "SIAF2027 Participating Artists and Partners" above (34 artists and 9 organizations in total) |
| Director team | Hideaki Ogawa (小川秀明, Creative Director), 細川麻沙美 (Festival Director), 漆 崇博 (School Director), 丸田知明 (Studio Director) |
| Advisor | Naoko Yamazaki (山崎直子) |
| Dramaturg | 金澤 韻 (PLANET SNOW story editing) |
| Curators | 金澤 韻 (Sapporo Civic Gallery), 西 翼 (Sapporo Science Center), 磯貝なゆた (Sapporo Science Center), 鈴木明世 (Hokkaido Museum), 竹村あすみ (Hokkaido Museum), 水島未記 (Hokkaido Museum), 薗部容子 (Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art), CAI現代美術研究所 / CAI03 and 一般社団法人PROJECTA (Sapporo Odori Underground Gallery 500m Museum) |
| Ainu culture coordinator | マユンキキ |
| Art directors and designers | ワビサビ, 白井宏昭 |
| Main visual | 大西重成 (Shigechan Land) [photograph, title lettering, character] |
| Organizers | Sapporo International Art Festival Executive Committee, City of Sapporo |
| Grants | FY2026 Agency for Cultural Affairs Cultural Arts Creation Hub Formation Project (令和8年度 文化庁 文化芸術創造拠点形成事業), Embassy of Switzerland in Japan, 一般財団法人地域創造, Kao Foundation for Arts and Sciences (公益財団法人花王芸術・科学財団), Council of Local Authorities for International Relations (一般財団法人自治体国際化協会), British Council, Embassy of France in Japan / Institut français, Austrian Cultural Forum Tokyo, Pro Helvetia (スイス・プロ・ヘルヴェティア文化財団), Mondriaan Fund (モンドリアン財団) |
