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YOKOHAMA, Japan—Unlike most Western countries, Japan has no street names. So it’s not easy to find the small storefront that doubles as the official headquarters of Koganecho Bazaar, a community-oriented temporary exhibition opening September 11 and comprising site-specific works throughout Koganecho, Yokohama’s former red-light district. One must be directed to a narrow, dingy street that was once home to a yakuza office and as many as eight brothels (the area as a whole notoriously once hosted some 250 houses of ill repute)—although such identifying landmarks are not, understandably, a source of pride to the majority of the neighborhood’s residents, and recent police crackdowns have nearly eliminated prostitution, which is illegal in Japan. “We are addressing a local community that has witnessed a lot of crime and degradation,” says Mayumi Hirano, an assistant curator of Koganecho Bazaar (and a Modern Painters contributor), a grassroots effort determined to revitalize the down-and-out neighborhood through the transformative power of art. “We want to show them possibilities for the town they live in. Our use of the term bazaar is deliberate—we want to evoke an economically vibrant atmosphere.”

To that end, the curators, Shingo Yamano and Taro Amano, who co-organized the last Yokohama Triennale, in 2005, are coordinating not only artist projects but also commercial ventures, such as an Issey Miyake shop selling his affordable “Me” T-shirt line, as well as food stalls. Although the Bazaar’s list of artists is not exactly starstudded, it does boast some international names, including Craig Walsh, an Australian who is planning on projecting a video onto the nearby Ooka River. Wit Pimkanchanapong, a Thai artist based in Bangkok, is opening a fruit stand—except the fruit is made of paper. And in at least one nod to Yokohama’s rich past as Japan’s first port and gateway to the rest of the world, photographer Takashi Arai is managing an old-fashioned portrait studio, using daguerreotype equipment to evoke pictures taken during the end of the Eido period. Such a range of earnest artworks executed with limited funds should provide an interesting dialogue with the well-financed Yokohama Triennale taking place on the other side of town (which also has its share of site-specific work).

At present, there are no plans for what will happen to the venues housing the Bazaar—buildings whose rooms are just wide enough to fit a twin bed—after the show closes November 30. But Hirano is optimistic about Koganecho’s future. “The project is temporary,” she says, “but we’re hoping that the neighborhood’s revitalization will continue long after it’s over.”

For more on Koganecho Bazaar, visit koganecho.net.

WHILE YOU’RE IN YOKOHAMA…

Yokohama Triennale
Led by its artistic director, Tsutomu Mizusawa, the Triennale will be on view from September 13 through November 30.
yokohamatriennale.jp

Yokohama Museum of Art
This museum—located near the Yokohama Landmark Tower, Japan’s tallest building—has an impressive collection of Dada and Surrealist works, as well as some pieces by significant Japanese artists such as Shiko Imamura.
yaf.or.jp/yma/

BankArt 1929
Encompassing a pub, a school, and an artist residency, BankArt 1929 is a revitalization project not unlike Koganecho Bazaar. The central space, informally known as BankArt, occupies a former bank, while the other, BankArt Studio NYK, is housed in a defunct warehouse.
bankart1929.com

ZAIM Art Center
This large building complex comprises art, design, and architecture offices, as well as contemporary art galleries.
za-im.jp/php

Steep Slope Studio
Focused on the performing arts, Steep Slope has an artist residency program and a “monthly art café”—a public salon geared
toward discussions of contemporary art and culture.
kyunasaka.jp/english/

"Koganecho Bazaar, Yokohama" originally appeared in the September 2008 issue of Modern Painters. For a complete list of articles from this issue available on ARTINFO, see Modern Painters' September 2008 Table of Contents.