It is said that encountering art cultivates creativity, which enables us to carve out a path through difficulties and create the future, as well as imagination, which nurtures compassion for others and society.

The relationship between humanity and art can be traced back to prehistoric times—for instance, the geometric patterns found in South Africa’s Blombos Cave (about 73,000 years ago) and numerous cave paintings around the world. That art has remained part of human life since before recorded history suggests it may have functioned as a means of survival. Even today, art plays a significant role in revitalizing cities and societies. In Japan, revitalization through art in coastal regions of the Seto Inland Sea has gained atten-ion. Internationally, the Austrian city of Linz—once heavily polluted—founded the cultural and artistic institution “Ars Electronica” in 1979, which has led it to be recognized as a future-oriented creative city. Similarly, in Bilbao, Spain, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao opened in 1997 amid the decline of the shipbuilding industry, attracting around 4 million visitors in just three years and creating over 5,000 jobs.

Given these developments, international attention is growing toward “art thinking” and “STEAM education,” which emphasize creative thinking and integrated learning across Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics. Believing in the power of art as a means to shape a better future society, the Osaka Kansai International Art Festival Executive Committee has held the pre-festival “Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival” three times since 2022 under the theme of “Studying the Relationship among Art, People, and Society.” In 2025, the Committee collaborated with thethe Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai presenting “social impact” as its central concept. Over 100 artist groups from a total of 25 countries and regions participated, showcasing exhibitions across Osaka and displaying public art at 13 locations within the Expo venue.

This art festival aims not only to promote culture but also to cultivate the next-generation core industries through the creative economy (industries based on intellectual property such as arts, design, advertising, fashion, and software). The committee has launched initiatives such as “StARTs UPs,” a business contest and support program for startups, contributing to job creation and new ventures.

Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival 2025, Chapter 2, Reflections on People and Life (Osaka Culture Centre, Tempozan), Exhibition view of ‘Reshaped Reality: 50 Years of Hyperrealist Sculpture’

Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival 2025, Chapter 1: An Invitation to a Diverse World (Expo 2025 Osaka, Kansai) ‘EXPO PUBLIC ART’ Teppei Kaneuji, ‘Hard Boiled Daydream (Sculpture / Spook / Osaka)’

To commemorate the 60th anniversary of the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and South Korea, the committee co-hosted the international art fair “Study × PLAS: Asia Art Fair” at the Osaka International Convention Center. This event brought together approximately 80 galleries and organizations from eight Asian countries and regions, providing a platform for global artistic exchange. Additionally, the committee hosted the symposium “Study × PLAS Meeting: Art & Impact—Where Are We (the Earth) Headed?”, aiming to reunite knowledge fragmented across art, science, technology, anthropology, and beyond, and to reimagine the future on a planetary scale.

Looking ahead, the committee plans to evolve the Osaka Kansai International Art Festival into a sustainable initiative toward achieving the SDGs by 2030, continuing its journey of learning and practice. It envisions Osaka as a global art city and seeks to promote the entire region—from Lake Biwa, the Yodo River basin, to the Seto Inland Sea—as the “Kansai Art & Bio Region” on the world stage. As a platform for this vision, it aims to establish the “International Future Consortium (tentative),” which will serve as a legacy of the Expo.

The Inochi Forum will collaborate with organizations promoting various arts festivals to foster creativity and imagination through art, thereby advancing efforts to build a sustainable life in harmony with nature.

[References]

・Study: Osaka Kansai International Art Festival
https://osaka-kansai.art/

・Executive Committee of the Osaka Kansai International Art Festival
https://osaka-kansai.art/pages/summary#organization

・Artlogue Inc.
https://www.artlogue.org/

[Action Platform]

Art, Culture and Sports


[SDGs]