Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions 2026

The annual Yebisu International Festival for Art & Alternative Visions is a leading platform dedicated to expanding the possibilities of the moving image. Rather than confining itself to conventional definitions of film or video, the two-week-long showcase examines how moving-image practices evolve across shifting social, technological and aesthetic frameworks. Each year it poses a recurring question – ‘What is the moving image?’ – and invites an international cast of artists to respond through diverse works and media.

The 2026 edition broadens its scope even further, introducing new programmes in sound and theatre alongside video and photographic works. Guided by an overarching theme proposed by lead curator Yu-Hsuan Chiu, ‘Yebizo’ draws inspiration from the Taiwanese phrase ‘Jīt-hue Siann-im’, or ‘Polyphonic Voices Bathed in Sunlight’. Evoking a landscape where countless voices overlap like shifting rays of light, the theme reflects today’s entangled social condition, marked by cultural coexistence, persistent inequalities and ongoing global friction.

At the Tokyo Photographic Art Museum’s third-floor gallery, works by Haruka Komori, a recipient of the festival’s Commission Project Special Prize, appear in dialogue with selections from the museum’s collection. Across multilayered spaces in Ebisu, you can encounter installations, performances and screenings by more than 30 artists that illuminate how languages, cultures and identities influence one another, sometimes harmoniously, sometimes dissonantly.

Note that while the exhibitions are free to enter, most of the screenings are paid.