Yurakucho Art Urbanism (YAU) is holding "YAU WEEKS," an open program that introduces YAU's activities, related projects and art unfolding on the streets of the Otemachi, Marunouchi and Yurakucho area. The program runs from October to mid-December 2026, and visitors can encounter art in the city as they walk around the area.
Highlights
- A 15-meter-long work by Kenta Cobayashi appears on the exterior wall of Tokyo Sankei Building
- A collaboration between a chemical manufacturer and an artist unfolds in the show windows of Otemachi Building
- An installation by 持田敦子 is held at Slit Park YURAKUCHO
- "Nora Exhibition 2.0" scatters works around the city
- "PRINT HOUSE by TPR" opens up the production sites of photographers and artists
- "BYOM! vol.2" is a projection event that turns the city into a screen
Meeting Art in the City
YAU has regarded the Otemachi, Marunouchi and Yurakucho area as a field of practice where artists, art managers, companies, workers and people involved in urban practice meet, creating places for production, research, dialogue, exhibition, performance and learning. YAU WEEKS presents YAU's day-to-day activities, the practices of artists connected to YAU, and the exhibitions and projects taking place around town in a form that can be discovered while walking through the area.
From October, wall-based exhibitions, production projects by artists and photographers, exhibitions born from collaborations between companies and artists, screening events that treat urban space as a screen, and participatory workshops and meet-ups will start one after another. Visitors can walk through the area in autumn and visit a number of venues. The program centers on free-admission events, and many exhibitions can be enjoyed without a reservation.
Main Programs Starting in October
YAU WALL #02 KENTA COBAYASHI "Vector Débris"
"YAU WALL" is a YAU program that treats various places around the city as exhibition walls, opening artists' perspectives to urban space. The first installment presented "Deep peeling" by French artist Jean-Vincent Simonet, a work based on the changing scenery of Yurakucho, where redevelopment is under way. Since August this year, a small-work wall called "YAU WALL Ö," where the displayed work changes every month, has also been installed in a corner of "lounge Ö," the lounge for people working in the area that opened on the first floor of the Shin-Kokusai Building. It mainly shows works by artists who have used YAU STUDIO.
For the second installment, artist Kenta Cobayashi presents "Vector Débris," a work that explores the relationship between the aesthetics shared in contemporary society and the urban environment.
The image above shows how the work will look when displayed.
- Dates: October 14, 2026 (Wed) to late March 2027 (planned)
- Venue: Exterior wall of Tokyo Sankei Building
- Address: 1-1-7 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
- Cooperation: Tokyo Sankei Building
- Planning: TOKYO PHOTOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
BYOM! – YAU Urban Screen – vol.2
"BYOM! – BRING YOUR OWN MEDIA!" is a projection event that treats various places around the city as screens, where artists bring their own works to show.
Participants bring a USB memory stick containing their own expression, such as photographs, videos, performance records or activity archives, and screen it using a projector prepared by YAU. Showing a photo slideshow, screening video works or performance records, or presenting past activities as a digest video are all possible, and the approach is up to each participant.
By projecting artists' works and activities onto the city, BYOM! creates an open space for viewing and dialogue where artists and visitors can interact freely. The event aims to create a new scene in Tokyo's nighttime streets.
- Date and time: October 23, 2026 (Fri), 5:00 PM to 7:00 PM
- Venue: TOKYO TORCH Park
- Details: To be announced in sequence on the official YAU website and social media
PRINT HOUSE by TPR Vol.2
"PRINT HOUSE by TPR" is a YAU project that sets up print-production studios for artists around the city. At YAU CENTER ZENIGAME, photographers and artists carry out experimental work using laser printers, and the production process and results are exhibited and zines are published.
For Vol.2, participants scheduled to take part include Kenta Cobayashi, Taisuke Koyama, Mayumi Hosokura, Gottingham and GC magazine, among others. YAU CENTER ZENIGAME will serve both as a place to view works and as an open production space where images are printed, tested and shared.
Talk events are also planned with Jeong Eun Kim (金廷恩), director of "T3 PHOTO ASIA," which is being held around the Kyobashi area at the same time. A related event, "TPR Roundtable: City and Photography," will also be held.
- Dates: October 7, 2026 (Wed) to October 23, 2026 (Fri)
- Hours: 12:00 PM to 7:00 PM
- Closed: Sundays, Mondays and Tuesdays
- Venue: YAU CENTER ZENIGAME
- Admission: Free
- Planning: TOKYO PHOTOGRAPHIC RESEARCH
Related event: "TPR Roundtable: City and Photography"
- Date and time: October 18, 2026 (Sun), 1:00 PM to 2:00 PM
- Speakers: Taisuke Koyama and others
- Venue: To be announced later
Talk event
- Date and time: October 18, 2026 (Sun), 4:00 PM to 5:00 PM
- Guest: Jeong Eun Kim (金廷恩), director of T3 PHOTO ASIA
Nora Exhibition 2.0 (野良展示2.0)
"Nora Exhibition 2.0" is an outdoor exhibition by students, graduates and assistants of the Department of Design, Faculty of Fine Arts, Tokyo University of the Arts. "Nora Exhibition" is an initiative themed on the sensibilities lurking in the gaps of the city, creating chance encounters with art in everyday spaces.
This time, works by nine artists are placed along the waterside space and around town. Rather than being limited to museums and galleries, the works are meant to be met by chance while commuting, getting around or taking a walk. They add new appeal to familiar scenery and give visitors a reason to walk through the city from a different perspective.
During the exhibition period, a moving manga advertisement by 鉄崎凌大 is also shown on digital signage in the area, extending the experience of encountering works while walking from outdoor space to digital media.
- Participating artists: millet, Kentaro Kobayashi, Nonoka Kondo, Ryoma Shimizu, Maki Sakata, Kano Nakamura, Takuma Goto, Hikaru Seito, Kanata Goto
- Dates: October 14, 2026 (Wed) to November 14, 2026 (Sat)
- Venues: Otemachi Financial City "Eco Museum" (大手町フィナンシャルシティ「エコミュージアム」), Uchikanda Nakadori Plaza (内神田仲通り広場)
- Organizer and planning: 東京藝術大学芸術未来研究場, YAU
- Cooperation: 大手町歩専道マネジメント
- Instagram: @nora\_\_exhibition
YAU Co-creation Prototyping 《封止の動詞／作為の再生》 Resonac × 青沼優介
"YAU Co-creation Prototyping" is a new project that opens the various resources and knowledge found in a company's operations to artists' research, then circulates the questions and thinking that emerge as works and insights back into the business district. For this first attempt, Resonac Corporation joins as the co-creation partner, and artist 青沼優介 presents the exhibition 《封止の動詞／作為の再生》.
The work, created by moving back and forth between research at the company and field research in the Otemachi, Marunouchi and Yurakucho area, is shown in the show windows on the second basement floor of Otemachi Building. Amid the scenery of Otemachi, where office workers and many other people pass through, it adds a new perspective on corporate technology and the time of the city.
- Dates: October 13, 2026 (Tue) to November 7, 2026 (Sat)
- Hours: 7:00 AM to 11:00 PM (follows the opening hours of Otemachi Building)
- Venue: Show windows, second basement floor, Otemachi Building
- Admission: Free
- Special cooperation: Resonac Corporation
Related talk: "Resonac × 青沼優介 Talk Event"
- Date and time: October 28, 2026 (Wed), 7:00 PM to 8:30 PM
- Venue: lounge Ö (1F Shin-Kokusai Building, Tokyo International Forum side, 3-4-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo)
- Registration: https://yauprototyping-202610.peatix.com/
Kakeru Watasu Hazusu (『かける わたす はずす』) at Slit Park YURAKUCHO
As the outcome of the "Exhibition Design Exercise" (展覧会設計演習) course at Yurakucho Geidai Campus (有楽町藝大キャンパス), artist 持田敦子 holds the exhibition "Kakeru Watasu Hazusu" (『かける わたす はずす』) at Slit Park YURAKUCHO. It is the 2026 exhibition of the course.
In the Meiji era, groups of red-brick buildings stood in Marunouchi, Tokyo, forming a district known as "Itchō Rondon" (One-Block London). Thousands of pine piles were driven into the ground to support the buildings, and lightning rods stretching toward the sky were installed on the roofs.
持田敦子 has created large-scale installations that insert foreign elements, such as temporary walls and staircases, into existing spaces and architecture to change their meaning and quality. For this exhibition, inspired by the lightning rods found in the Marunouchi and Yurakucho area and the flow that runs from them into the ground, she creates an installation at Slit Park YURAKUCHO, located between buildings.
Using the invisible flows heading toward the sky, underground, or toward the memory of the city as clues, the exhibition offers a chance to look at the layers of the city that exist within everyday life.
- Dates: October 11, 2026 (Sun) to October 18, 2026 (Sun)
- Hours: 11:00 AM to 7:00 PM (until 6:00 PM on the final day)
- Venue: Slit Park YURAKUCHO
- Admission: Free
- Organizers: 東京藝術大学キュレーション教育研究センター, Yurakucho Geidai Campus (Tokyo University of the Arts, Tokyo Metropolitan Government, YAU)
- Special cooperation: Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd., Mitsubishi Ichigokan Museum, Tokyo, Slit Park YURAKUCHO, SpAcE Co., Ltd.
Programs Planned From November to December
From November onward, open-call projects in the city that YAU has been running, as well as research projects based at YAU CENTER ZENIGAME, are scheduled to roll out in sequence.
構想計画所 "Weathering Project"
The urban greening that Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd. has practiced does more than improve the environment and scenery. It is also an attempt to encourage people to stay and interact, creating new ways of spending time in the city. For this exhibition, the art collective 構想計画所 (小林耕二郎, 三田健志, 前野智彦) is invited to reconsider circulation in the city, starting from "greening."
What appears in the windows of the underground passage in front of Tokyo Station are plants, the city and rocks, each with a different time of its own: the time of plants lost as wilderness was cleared, leveled and settled and the city expanded; the time of the city, which changes its appearance over decades through redevelopment; and the time of rocks, which continue the collapse known as weathering at a pace too slow for people to perceive.
In the exhibition "Weathering Project," these three kinds of time appear inside the windows of Gyoko-dori Underground Gallery. By visualizing the relationship among plants, the city and rocks, the project reconsiders "greening" as a process of creating unknown environments, not just as environmental improvement by plants.
- Dates: November 6, 2026 (Fri) to December 25, 2026 (Fri)
- Venue: Gyoko-dori Underground Gallery, Tokyo Station side
- Note: The exhibition cannot be viewed from 12:30 AM to 4:00 AM because the shutters are closed.
Daimaruyu Shizen no Copain Workshop (大丸有シゼンノコパン): "Looking at What Lives in This Garden"
A workshop invites participants to look at the familiar nature of the Otemachi, Marunouchi and Yurakucho area and to build up, through observation and imagination, the forms of creatures that might live there.
The guest is the art collective 構想計画所, which is exhibiting at Gyoko-dori Underground Gallery. Participants observe the details of gardens, plants, soil, stones and scenery around town and imagine "what lives in this garden." By taking a close look at nature in the city that is usually overlooked and creating an imaginary chronicle of living creatures from it, the workshop creates time to think about the relationship between the city, nature and non-human beings. The full title in Japanese is 「この庭に暮らすものを『見る』― 観察からつくる、想像上の生物記 ―」.
- Date and time: December 12, 2026 (Sat), 2:00 PM to 3:30 PM
- Meeting point: In front of Horiguchi Coffee (堀口珈琲), 1F Otemachi One
- Guest: 構想計画所 (小林耕二郎, 三田健志, 前野智彦)
- Eligibility: Ages 5 and up (children in elementary school or younger must be accompanied by a guardian)
- Capacity: 15 groups (first-come, first-served, advance registration required)
- Fee: ¥500 per person (materials included)
- Weather: Held in light rain; canceled in severe weather
- What to bring: Cold-weather items such as a hat and gloves as needed, rain gear in case of rain, and drinks
- Registration: https://copain202612.peatix.com/
Machinaka Open Call 2026 Selected Project: Aokid "Dance 'Dreaming That Becomes the Wind Blowing Through, and Today (Tokyo)'!"
As part of the YAU open-call program for projects in the city (まちなか公募), which opens up new possibilities for the city through art, a participatory project is held with dancer Aokid. Otemachi, Marunouchi and Yurakucho is an office district where workers come and go. Here, under the direction and choreography of Aokid, a light workshop that blends running and dance will be held. The original title is 「吹き抜ける風になるdreamingと今日（東京）」をダンス！
Dates: Six sessions in total, each from 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM. Participants can join multiple sessions. If there are many applicants, participants will be selected.
- November 18, 2026 (Wed)
- November 24, 2026 (Tue)
- December 2, 2026 (Wed)
- December 10, 2026 (Thu)
- December 16, 2026 (Wed)
- December 17, 2026 (Thu)
Venue: Otemachi area (planned)
Details and how to apply will be announced in sequence on the official YAU website and social media.
Zenigame Sewer Research vol.2 (ぜにがめ下水道リサーチ vol.2)
Starting from YAU CENTER ZENIGAME, "Zenigame Sewer Research vol.2" reads the city's hard-to-see infrastructure and the structures spreading beneath one's feet through art and research. Details will be announced soon.
- Period: Late November to December 18, 2026 (planned)
- Venue: YAU CENTER ZENIGAME
- Details: To be announced in sequence on the official YAU website and social media
出垣内愛 Solo Exhibition 『遺す、遺さないの選択肢』 (The Option to Leave or Not to Leave)
Artist 出垣内愛, who did a residency production at YAU ARTIST STUDIO, holds a solo exhibition at CADAN Otemachi. With research cooperation from YAU and Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd., the exhibition features new works made from materials that have finished their role, collected from the daily lives of people working in the Otemachi, Marunouchi and Yurakucho area, as well as works that look at the transformation and memory of matter through glaze.
- Dates: November 17 (Tue) to December 5 (Sat)
- Venue: CADAN Otemachi
- Planning: KAWA KAWANISHI GALLERY
- Cooperation: Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd., YAU
- Details: To be announced in sequence on the CADAN Otemachi and official YAU websites and social media
Exploring Art Around the Area
During YAU WEEKS, a special page will be set up on the official YAU website, and information on each program will be published in sequence.
In addition to programs organized by YAU and related projects, YAU introduces events that can be visited in the Otemachi, Marunouchi and Yurakucho area and art found around town, from YAU's point of view. The aim is to create opportunities to discover places to stop by before and after exhibitions and projects, art in public spaces, and expressions found while strolling the city.
YAU WEEKS Overview
YAU WEEKS is an open program that opens up the activities and related projects of YAU, which is based in Yurakucho, to the city.
- Period: October to mid-December 2026
- Venues:
- YAU STUDIO (Room 16, 1F Tokyo Expressway Kita-Yuraku Building, near 1-3 Ginza 1-chome, Chuo-ku, Tokyo)
- YAU CENTER ZENIGAME (inside Zenigame Place, 1F Zenigamecho Building, 2-6-3 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo)
- Other venues for each program
- Organizer: Yurakucho Art Urbanism Executive Committee (NPO法人大丸有エリアマネジメント協会, 一般社団法人大手町・丸の内・有楽町地区まちづくり協議会, Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd.)
- Participation: Free, drop-in. Some programs are paid and require advance reservation, so please check the details of each program.
For more on Yurakucho Art Urbanism (YAU), see the official website https://arturbanism.jp/ and Instagram @arturbanism.
This event is positioned as one of the partner programs of "ARTE TOKYO" (東京国際文化芸術祭).
- Dates: October 10, 2026 (Sat) to December 31, 2026 (Thu)
- Organizer: Tokyo Metropolitan Government, 東京国際文化芸術祭実行委員会
- Website: https://artetokyo.jp/ja/
