The Yokohama Paratriennale is coming to town again
Having kicked off with a bang last Saturday, the 2017 edition of the Yokohama Paratriennale offers a new look at the arts. Held for the first time in 2014, the festival is set to run every three years until the Olympics – or rather, the Paralympics.
Tokyo seems to have finally woken up to the fact that the upcoming Games will consist of both parts; the Paratriennale, where art created by those with physical disabilities is displayed, is in a way an offshoot of this recognition, and of a hunger to make 2020 truly great.
This year's festival theme is 'Sense of oneness: a place to blend together' – a phrase that hints at an aim of presenting artwork that goes beyond physical ability, sex, race, age or any other category that might present a social barrier.
The building blocks for this sophomore edition were laid in 2014, when the inaugural Paratriennale saw various workshops and performances around Yokohama promote exchanges between those with and without disabilities. Over the course of four months, a good 24 associations and organisations participated, for a total of about 10,000 attendees overall.
Plans are in place to top that number this year, with at least 50 actors currently set to partake in the shenanigans, while they're looking to have a 50-50 split between able-bodied and disabled participants. The Zou-no-Hana Terrace will again function as the main stage, while there will be performances and artworks – all made by mixed groups of artists – exhibited around the