design festa gallery is this super cool gallery in harajuku.
the space is divided in two: gallery east and gallery west. to get from one to the other, you have to go through the very cute outdoors cafe bar. also, there is sakura tei – a pretty famous okonomiyaki and monja place.
the gallery has a very interesting business model. they rent out parts of their space to willing artists. i have a brochure with all the prices and spaces available (21 exhibition spaces + 50 wall spaces). i will only give you a couple of examples so you can get an idea.
101-a is a 33.6 sqm area – the most expensive they have to offer. it is available for the following prices:
52,900 yen=391 euro/weekday
88,000 yen=651 euro/weekend or holiday day
132,300 yen=978 euro/3 days
374,850 yen=2773 euro/week.
a 4.5 sqm storage is available for a very reasonable 1,000 yen=7,4 euro/day. i believe it’s plenty of space for an emerging artist to display their stuff.
the weirdest place they are renting out is the toilet in the 1st floor. lol! i had no idea about that when i was there. otherwise, i would have gone to check out the art. the toilet is very small (square footage is not available) and it costs 2,600 yen=19.2/week and 10,000 yen= 73.9 euro/month. a bargain!
the gallery charges no commission on sales. i can tell you that some of the artists shared the spaces and most probably the costs. why not?
they even have a free magazine featuring gallery-related news.
here you have pictures of how the place looked at the beginning of june. the main page of the gallery website has a list of the artists in case you have more drive, time and japanese skills to track down the featured artists.
she is asami. i bought a post card with this cute character and her card had the shape of the character. cute!
below you have hangyomans.
here, there was an opening. the only card i got was a chartreuse origami of a school girl outfit. very cute! here you have the artist’s blog and twitter.
the highlight of keisuke hasegawa’s party was the kinbaku demonstration. check it out!
below, you have the art of risa mehmet. follow her on her website, artwork tumblr, tumblr or instagram. she had variety and a strong vision.
below, you have the art of hiroyuki tsunomori. his card looked like an actual playing card only with a much cooler black and white design. i liked his rock’n’roll sensibility with strong japanese influences. find him on his website, facebook profile and twitter.
keep up with the gallery by checking out their website, facebook page, twitter and blog.
what do you think of their business model? i like the place and i’ll be there every time i’m in tokyo!
photo credits: little aesthete
1 comment
THRIFT SHOPPING IN TOKYO - little aesthete's blog says:
Nov 18, 2013
[…] waiting for a friend, we found junk, a newly opened thrift store somewhere behind the design festa gallery. it had just been opened for a couple of days when i visited (most probably, the 1st of june). i […]