AWT FOCUS

AWT Focus is Art Week Tokyo’s centerpiece exhibition platform. Launched in 2023, the platform was originally conceived as a laboratory for curatorial experimentation. This year’s edition expands that vision by inviting 10 curators to organize special projects at 10 spaces across Tokyo. Contributors include the Japanese queer feminist collective Multiple Spirits, the British curator and writer Ekow Eshun, and the American museum director Jeremy Strick. Participating spaces range from the leading commercial gallery SCAI The Bathhouse to the artist-run space XYZ collective and space Un, a gallery and residency program dedicated to supporting art from Africa and the African diaspora in Tokyo.

This reconceptualization of AWT Focus, which previously invited a single curator to organize a survey-scale exhibition at a central venue, is inspired by the gallery-led initiative curated by, Vienna. Reflecting the ethos of community building and resource sharing that has informed Art Week Tokyo from the start, the new format was developed in collaboration with the organizers of curated by. Projects were selected by Misako Rosen of Misako & Rosen, Tokyo, who is also a member of the Art Week Tokyo selection committee, and Raphael Oberhuber, Director, Galerie nächst St. Stephan Rosemarie Schwarzwälder, Vienna, representing curated by.