Free things to do in Tokyo this week

Step into an enchanted digital forest in this collaborative exhibition between teamLab and Galaxy. Now in its third iteration, the interactive experience is based on the concept of catching different digital creatures to study them before releasing them back into their habitat. As it's a digital art experience, you'll be using an app on the Galaxy smartphone to collect different prehistoric animals in the mystical forest. Be gentle when approaching these critters! If you try to touch them they might run and disappear into the forest. If you're lucky, they might become curious instead and turn towards you. Nevertheless, the exercise here is to point your phone camera at them, release a Study Arrow in their direction, and capture them onto your screen so that you can learn more about their nature. You can also work together with other visitors and shepherd the dinosaurs projected on the floor. This allows you to then deploy the Study Net and capture them into your phone. Once you've done studying them, you can release them back into the space. While the exhibit is free, reservations are required so as to avoid overcrowding the venue. Each session is an hour long, with the exhibition open from 11am until 7pm daily. You can book a timeslot as early as three days in advance via the event website.

The UNU farmers’ market is one of Tokyo’s longest running and best-attended markets. Taking place every weekend in front of the university’s Aoyama headquarters, this one always attracts a knowledgeable crowd. Organic and local fare is readily available every Saturday and Sunday from 10am to 4pm, with the farmers themselves happy to provide details about their wares. Plus, there's always a few food trucks on hand if you wish to enjoy a quick meal.

The Tokyo Contemporary Art Award, established in 2018, is a prize intended to encourage mid-career artists to make further breakthroughs in their work by providing winners with several years of continuous support. Here, the two winners of the award’s fourth edition each present shows that, despite their creative diversity, both involve visitors and their actions becoming key elements of the art. Through this, both shows lead audiences to examine their relationships: with fellow humans, animals, and society’s expectations. Saeborg, born in 1981 and based in Tokyo, creates and performs as a latex bodysuit-clad ‘imperfect cyborg, half human and half toy’ that enables the female behind this guise to transcend such characteristics as age and gender. Here Saeborg presents ‘I Was Made for Loving You’, for which a section of the venue has been transformed into a life-sized toy farm. Visitors will experience a highly immersive installation-performance that transcends the boundaries between the body and synthetic materials, and between human and animal. Michiko Tsuda (born in 1980 and working in Ishikawa prefecture) presents ‘Life is Delaying’, an installation that uses video to explore the notion of physicality. The work recreates the private world experienced by a family at home through the perspective of someone operating an old-school video camera. The piece was inspired by Tsuda’s childhood memory of a video camera appearing in her family residence. Here, fictitious documentation

Anime Station Tokyo is celebrating the latest addition to the ‘Gundam’ franchise by hosting a special ‘Mobile Suit Gundam Seed Freedom’ exhibition, ongoing until early May. Dedicated to the aforementioned film, which was released in January this year, the event features an exclusive showcase of rare materials and illustrations from the iconic 'Mobile Suit Gundam' anime series. As the exhibition also coincides with the 45th anniversary of the Gundam franchise, it offers a comprehensive look at Gundam's long and illustrious history. Visitors can explore a detailed timeline, admire iconic Mobile Suits, and view a collection of beloved Gunpla models. This year is especially significant as the iconic moving Gundam in Yokohama will be closing at the end of March. The exhibition therefore provides fans with a unique chance to dive into the Gundam universe. By first visiting the towering mecha in Yokohama and then exploring this exhibition in Ikebukuro, fans can enjoy a seamless Gundam experience that celebrates both its rich legacy and promising future.

Tokyo Arts and Space (TOKAS) has since 2001 been holding this annual exhibition as part of its multi-faceted support for young and emerging Japanese talent. 2024 sees the event comprise solo shows by six up-and-coming artists, whose work encompasses painting, photography, video, installations and more, split into two sessions running from April through to June. Part one (April 6 to May 5) features Chisa Takami’s ‘℃ | The Ring of 23 Degrees’, which comprises videos and performances on the themes of ‘ambiguity’, ‘voids’, and the ‘presence of mediating objects’ (performances held on Saturday and Sunday only; see website for schedule). Naoto Nakamura, meanwhile, presents ‘Fernweh Trupp’, in which a narrative written by the artist unfolds in an apartment-like installation which combines imagery, furniture, and sound design. Finally, Chiho Okuno contributes ‘Training for My New Body: I Want to See My Back’ in which videos, engravings and three-dimensional pieces depict the world as seen by rabbits, an animal that has a near-360-degree field of vision. Part two (May 18 to June 16) then presents Kanako Hiramatsu’s ‘Heap Up Sand’, in which the artist takes inspiration from the activity of ants to create an environment that incorporates multiple perspectives. This is joined by ‘Dogs and FPS’ from Satoshi Kikuya, an animated work giving viewers the perspective of a character who becomes lost while following a dog. Finally, Sayaka Toda’s ‘Echoes of the Unspoken: The Silent Voices of the

British-born artist Mark Leckey is a product of the UK’s ever-vibrant pop culture, and through diverse mediums he confronts youth, dance music, nostalgia, social class and history from an often countercultural perspective. The subcultural edge of his work – which encompasses film, sound, sculpture, performance, collage and more – additionally takes on a gritty incongruousness when enjoyed at Louis Vuitton’s sleek Omotesando exhibition space. The French luxury house here presents two Leckey works from its collection. 'Fiorucci Made Me Hardcore feat. Big Red Soundsystem' (1999-2003-2010) is a film that, through a mash-up of archive footage, vividly traces the development of the UK’s underground dance music scene from 1970s disco through to the ’90s rave scene. 2013’s 'Felix the Cat', meanwhile, is a giant inflatable rendering of the cartoon cat that Leckey considers a pioneer of the digital age. Almost a century ago, this feline character was one of the first subjects to be transmitted as a TV signal. Text by Darren Gore

This innovative exhibition is a creative collaboration between five French artists: Polygon1993, Lighton, Lukas, Louis Dazy, and Oelhan, who together are known as the Soma Collective. Blurring the boundaries between the physical and digital realms, 'Shin Sekai' navigates the complex interplay between these two worlds while forging a path towards a future where both can coexist harmoniously.  For this exhibition, Soma Collective is showcasing their works in collaboration with Japanese artists Saeko Ehara, Excalibur, Dian & Emi Kusano. You’ll be able to catch a range of artworks at four galleries across Tokyo including UltraSuperNew Gallery, SomSoc Gallery, Courtyard Hiroo and Nox Gallery.