Header: Yutaka Oiwa, Card Game, Photo: Sae Yuda
Hotel Anterum Kyoto, which shares the ever-changing art and culture of Kyoto, will host an exhibition titled “art bit – Contemporary Art & Indie Game Culture – #5” from June 21 (Sat) to August 23 (Sun), 2025, exploring the mutual appeal of contemporary art and indie games.
This year marks the fifth anniversary of the exhibition, themed “Phantom Game Center.” It explores the intersection between the playful performance art tradition spanning from composer John Cage to the present day and the body-centric celebration of game centers, culminating in a festival where games and art merge into a celebration of “body and performance.”
In conjunction with the exhibition’s opening, on June 21 and 22, we will host an event titled “Phantom Game Center is Coming!” featuring talk sessions with participating artists and researchers in related fields, trial play sessions, workshops, and a reception.
Centered around the restaurant in the venue hotel, the “Phantom Game Center” will appear, where visitors can freely experience immersive and participatory works, including analog game-type works exhibited at art bit #5, to mark the start of the two-month exhibition period.
On the first day, the talk session “The Technology of the Magic Circle: Games, Rituals, Gambling, and Installations” will feature three artists—Kazunari Yonemitsu, Yutaka Oiwa, and Nilgiri—who are exhibiting participatory works using analog media, along with Shinshi Matsunaga, who studies video games from an analytical aesthetics perspective, and Fumiko Morota, who researches Philippine cockfighting and number lotteries from a cultural anthropology perspective. They will engage in interdisciplinary discussions.
On the second day, the talk session “Creating by Playing, Playing by Creating: Perspectives from Game Creators and Artists” will feature the aforementioned three artists, along with Takakura Kazuki and Eiko Yoshizumi, who will present immersive works using digital media. The discussion will delve deeper into the exhibition’s theme, exploring each artist’s creation, play, and performance design.
Additionally, following both days’ talk sessions, we will host a hands-on workshop and exhibition where visitors can experience works such as Kazunari Yonemitsu’s “Memory Exchange Ritual,” Yutaka Oiwa’s “Card Game,” Nilgiri’s “How to Make Peace with the City,” Eiko Yoshizumi’s “Les Hommes du Désert: Sandcastle Apple Vision Pro Edition,” and other exhibited works. On the first night, an opening reception will be held where visitors can interact with the exhibiting artists and freely experience the exhibited works.
Event Overview
“Phantom Game Center is coming!”
Participation fee: Free
Saturday, June 21, 2025 Event Schedule
1:00 p.m. Doors open
1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Talk session
“The Technology of Magic Circles: Games, Rituals, Gambling, and Installations”
Yusuke Oiwa × Nilgiri × Shinji Matsunaga × Fumiko Morota × Kazunari Yonemitsu
3:45 PM–6:00 PM Trial Play Session/Workshop
Kazunari Yonemitsu: “Memory Exchange Ritual,” “Journaling of the Dead”
Yutaka Oiwa: “Card Game”
Nirgiri: “How to Make Peace with the City”
Eiko Yoshizumi: “Les Hommes du Désert: Sand Castle Apple Vision Pro Edition”
and others
19:00– art bit#5 Opening Reception
*Even after the reception ends, you can still try out and experience the works in the bar lounge.
Sunday, June 22, 2025 Event Schedule
1:00 p.m. Doors open
1:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Talk session
“Creating through play, playing through creation: Perspectives from game creators and artists”
Yusuke Oiwa × Kazuki Takakura × Nilgiri × Eiko Yoshizumi × Kazunari Yonemitsu
15:45–18:00 Trial Play Session/Workshop
Kazunari Yonemitsu: “Memory Exchange Ritual” “Journaling of the Dead”
Yutaka Oiwa: “Card Game”
Nilgiri: “How to Make Peace with the City”
Kazuki Takakura: “Hyper Shrine art bit version (tentative)”
Eiko Yoshizumi “Les Hommes du Désert: Sandcastle Apple Vision Pro Edition”
Others
*Individual participation in specific sessions, such as talk sessions or individual demo sessions/workshops, is also possible.
■Exhibiting Artist Profile
Yusuke Oiwa
Visual artist. He creates artworks by conceptualizing “installation” as a technique for reproducing, analyzing, and intervening in the reality of systems that constrain and perform humanity—specifically, the law—and employs criticism, theoretical research, and workshops as tools to support this practice. Drawing on motifs and forms from contemporary and universal contexts, he explores themes such as law, infectious diseases, comedy, card games, haunted houses, websites, and mahjong parlors. Major exhibitions include “P in the Vortex” (solo exhibition, Towada Art Center) and “Encounters in Parallel” (group exhibition, ANB Tokyo). Recent contributions include the art magazine “daen 2024,” the ‘Yurika’ special issue on comedy and criticism, the Okazaki Kenjiro special issue, and the “Gendai Shiso” special issue on Kafka. euskeoiwa.com
Nilgiri
Game creator. Began creating games in 2015. Organized “Is This a Game? Exhibition” (2018, 2019). Works include “Ambiguous Favorite Things,” “First-Year Game,” “Quoqi,” “That Thing Over There,” “How to Make Peace with the City,” and “Dohyo! Any Word is a Word.”
Kazunari Yonemitsu
Game creator. Has created a wide range of games, from computer games to tabletop games, including “Puyo Puyo,” “Haa Game,” “A-I-U-E Battle,” “Weird Face Match,” and “BAROQUE.” In 2007, participated in the participatory theater piece “If I Don’t Make a Game, the World Will End” at “LOBBY,” organized by Kishi Daisuke. In 2009, appeared in the Nakago Theater Company’s “Psychic Academy Z.” In 2019, he wrote and directed “Memory Exchange Ritual” and organized “Ritual Festival.” He is a professor at Digital Hollywood University.
Artist. Graduated from Tokyo Zokei University Graduate School with a master’s degree. Using digital expressions such as video games, pixel art, VR, NFT, and AI, he creates works themed on rewriting the rules of contemporary art based on Eastern philosophy, pursuing new value in digital data, and the aesthetics of character variations. Major exhibitions include the entrance exhibition at GINZA SIX titled “Hyperman Van Go-Oh (2025),” the curated exhibition “Character Matrix (2024)” at BUG, and the solo exhibition “Mekarial (2023)” at the Yamanashi Prefectural Museum of Art. Other exhibitions include the Ashikaga City Museum of Art, SusHi Tech Square, NTT Intercommunication Center [ICC], a solo exhibition in Taipei, and exhibitions in New York and Mexico. Currently writing a series on “Contemporary Art and Video Games” for Bijutsu Techo Online Premium.
Eiko Yoshizumi
Contemporary artist based in Kyoto. Graduated from Kobe Design University, Department of Fashion Design. While in school, studied game world design under Hitoshi Yasuda and folklore under Hideaki Otsuka. Moved to England in 2014 and apprenticed at a hat design atelier in London that worked on Vivienne Westwood’s collections. Also worked on costume design for contemporary opera. In 2024, she presented “Les Hommes du Désert: People of the Wilderness” in Kyoto, performing theater and mini-opera with contemporary musicians during the exhibition period. In the same year, she presented the expanded theatrical expression of her game work “Les Hommes du Désert: Sandcastle Fortnite Edition” at KYOTO EXPERIMENT 2024 More Experiment. She is engaged in game art as a form of interdisciplinary comprehensive art.
■Guest Speaker Profile
Shinji Matsunaga
Kyoto University Graduate School of Letters / Associate Professor
Aesthetician and philosopher. Based on contemporary English-language analytical aesthetics, he theorizes the unique expressions of video games and analyzes critical practices toward video game works. His publications include “The Aesthetics of Video Games” (Keio University Press, 2018), “Critical Words: Game Studies” (co-edited, Film Art Publishing, 2025), and translations such as Miguel Sicar’s “Play Matters: The Philosophy of Playfulness” (Film Art Publishing, 2019).
Fumiko Morota
Kyoto University Graduate School of Asian and African Area Studies / Assistant Professor
Cultural anthropologist and regional studies researcher. Her publications include People Who Gamble Every Day (Keio University Press, 2025).
■About the “art bit – Contemporary Art & Indie Game Culture -” exhibition
Since its opening in 2011, Hotel Anterum Kyoto has been promoting “the ever-changing state of art and culture in Kyoto.” Following its encounter with Japan’s largest indie game festival, “BitSummit,” the hotel has been hosting this exhibition every summer since 2021. Focusing on the mirror-like appeal and creative roots of contemporary art’s game-like qualities and indie games’ artistic qualities, the exhibition explores new possibilities for art and games by transcending cultural boundaries through interactions between artists, creators, researchers, and others.
■Exhibition Overview
Title: art bit – Contemporary Art & Indie Game Culture – #5
Dates: June 21 (Sat) – August 23 (Sat), 2025, 10:00 AM – 8:00 PM
Venue: Hotel Antlerum Kyoto GALLERY 9.5
Admission: Free
URL: https://www.uds-hotels.com/anteroom/kyoto/news/
■Organizers
Hotel Antlerum Kyoto
Skeleton Crew Studio Co., Ltd.
Shibuya Asobiba Production Committee
Partners:
BITSUMMIT
STYLY Co., Ltd.
Kyoto Computer Academy
Ritsumeikan University Film Department
Support:
■Inquiries
Hotel Anterum Kyoto
TEL: 075-681-5656
Contact: Toyokawa (Planning)
MAIL: info@hotel-anteroom.com