Program Period : October 1 – November 3, 2025

Exhibition : October 25 – November 3, 2025

Venue : Art Studio Dungeon, 2–1 Yamatocho, Itabashi-ku, Tokyo

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About

Travelers × Itabashi”

 

“Travelers × Itabashi” is an art program centered around the key theme of “travel.”

Seven artists — each with their own roots in different regions and countries — gathered in the former post town of Itabashi-shuku and lived together for one month, creating new works and presenting them in a final exhibition.

The program aims to foster new discoveries through the interactions among the artists themselves, as well as between artists, viewers, and local residents — between the outside and the inside. These encounters and discoveries are intended to open pathways toward the future.

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About Itabashi-shuku

 

The International Artist-in-Residence Program “Travelers × Itabashi” was held at the Art Studio Dungeon, located near the Nakajuku Shopping Street in the former Itabashi-shuku area of the Nakasendō in Itabashi-ku, Tokyo.

Itabashi-shuku is a historic post town that once prospered as one of the four major post stations of Edo, alongside Shinagawa-shuku on the Tokaido, Naito-Shinjuku on the Koshu-kaido, and Senju-shuku on the Oshu-kaido. A place where travelers once gathered and filled the area with life, Itabashi-shuku is a fitting setting for an artist-in residence program that now brings together artists from various countries.

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“Tabi no Hito”

 — “Those Who Travel”

 

In a certain mountain village in Niigata Prefecture, the hometown of Executive Committee representative Tonokura, the phrase “tabi no hito” — “a person who is traveling” — carries a slightly unusual nuance. For example, someone who leaves the village to study or work elsewhere is said to be “on a journey.”

“What is the son of that family doing these days?”

“Oh, he’s gone off on a journey.”

Even if that person finds a job in the city, marries there, builds a home, and reaches their forties or fifties— even if it is clear they will never again live permanently in their home village- they are still described as “being on a journey.” Perhaps this expresses the belief that, no matter where one lives, one’s roots remain in the ancestral graves and in the fields passed down through generations.

At the same time—and this is likely common throughout Japan—before modern transportation and communication made information readily accessible, travelers were precious visitors to rural communities: valuable sources of knowledge from the outside world. When a traveler arrived, the village headman or the local temple would host them as honored guests, allowing them to stay for as long as they wished.

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The Artist Collective “ESCALE”

 

“ESCALE” is the name of an international artist collective that emerged from Artistic Journey, a project initiated by Professor Günther Uecker of the Düsseldorf Art Academy. The word escale comes from French and means “port of call,” referring to a stopover made during a sea voyage.Rather than a fixed or formally defined group, ESCALE is a project-based collective in which artists from various countries gather in new environments, bringing with them their own histories and perspectives to undertake residencies and present their work. At the proposal of ESCALE members, diverse projects have been realized in many countries around the world.​