"Nuit Blanche KYOTO", a night for contemporary art 

"Nuit Blanche-Kyoto" is a contemporary art event in whose production I have been participating since 2019. Organised by the Kansai French Institute and the city of Kyoto, this event has been held every year in Kyoto since 2011. It opens on the same day as the Paris edition where the concept was conceived, allowing visitors to enjoy free art events for a whole day, until late at night, one of the longest of the year.
One of the highlights of this year's event is artist Tadashi Kawamata's "Floating Bridge of Dreams (yume-ukihashi) work in progess, 2022", a full-scale model of which is set up in front of the entrance to the Kyocera Museum in Kyoto.

Initiated three years ago, this project for a temporary bridge over the Kamo River revisits an old story, that of an "idea" put forward in 1988 between the then French president and the mayor of Kyoto for a "Bridge of Arts" over the river crossing the city. The idea was eventually abandoned in the face of fierce opposition from local residents - "Kyoto doesn't need a foreign bridge" was heard, and this failure showed the power of the local residents. This episode interested Tadashi Kawamata, the internationally renowned Parisian artist whose work is part of a tradition of art exhibited in public space (Public Art), and so I embarked with him on producing this project. The aim is to revisit the concept of a bridge symbolising the friendship between France and Japan, by launching a bridge of assembled logs on the site where it should have been built, using traditional scaffolding construction techniques. This bridge would be presented at a future edition of the Nuit Blanche-Kyoto. 

In the first year, a small model was discreetly displayed in the Kyoto Art Center. In the second year, a full-scale model of the main girders was erected in the car park of the Shoeido incense shop overlooking Karasuma Avenue. This year, the third year of the project, we had planned to build the span of the bridge in the square in front of Kyoto City Hall, but due to the current construction there, we finally erected it in front of the Kyocera Museum, taking advantage of the depression created by the new entrance two years ago, imagining a river flowing. This "Floating Bridge of Dreams" connects the upper part where the historical entrance was and the lower part through which one now enters the building. The bridge is also installed at the foot of the huge portico (torii) opening the way to the Heian Shrine, the symbol of Okazaki Park.

I am confident that this bridge will really be launched on the Kamo River within a few years and that it will be the founding act of a new tradition, paving the way for other artists to create "artistic" and ephemeral bridges on the Kamo River.

Official website of the Nuit Blanche KYOTO
https://nuitblanche.jp

Come, card in hand, to the contemporary art festivals taking place all over the city!
Map
https://www.institutfrancais.jp/kansai/files/2022/09/NBK2022-Programme_FINAL.pdf

Free evening opening: 1 Oct (Sat)
(Several exhibitions continue until the end of October).