Sapporo International Art Festival 2017

Returning for its second edition, Sapporo's own celebration of art got off to an excellent start in 2014, when Ryuichi Sakamoto was appointed guest director. They're keeping with the music theme this year as well, with Yoshihide Otomo set to take charge of proceedings. The list of participating musicians already includes the likes of experimental indie duo Tenniscoats, Dommune headman Naohiro Ukawa, multimedia wizard Yasunao Tone, frequent Otomo collaborator Sachiko M, musical polymath Yuichi Kishino and EyƎ of Boredoms, while Marewrew, who specialise in the traditional Ainu singing style of upopo, are also set to appear. Non-musical contributions will come from kinetic installation artist Yuko Mohri and photographer Naoki Ishikawa, plus the curious Retro Space Saka Kaikan, also featured in our 50 things to do in Sapporo guide (nr 47).