Tokyo Geidai Symbol: Link to the Geidai portal site.

TURN+BIENALSUR 2025 in Tokyo Report

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December 11, 2025—Invitation/Collaborative Program

TURN in 2025 took place in Japan and Argentina through an ongoing collaboration with the Argentina-based BIENALSUR contemporary art biennial. This year marks the 10th anniversary of the BIENALSUR collaboration, which began in 2017 and has continued through projects in various forms every two years. Building this network and base of experience, Argentinian artist Juan Solentino came to Japan for three weeks this summer and engaged with the “local community” as his exchange partner. He collaborated with local Ueno Sakuragi and Yanaka residents and deaf individuals to create works inspired by the lively summer festival held during his stay. He presented his work during the Suwa Shrine festival with the children’s portable shrine procession and the Ueno Sakuragi neighborhood’s festival float, creating a charming space for exchange.


Solentino garnered insights from local history, approaches to traditional Japanese music, and sounds in the surrounding environment, which informed this project and have the potential to bring about evolutions in his work into the future.

【TURN＋BINENALSUR 2025 in Tokyo】

Artist: Juan Solentino
Exchange partners: Ueno Sakuragi and Yanaka residents, deaf individuals, and others
Exchange period: August 8 – 22, 2025

Presentation date: August 24, 2025
Venue: Geidai-beya parking area

Talk event: August 26, 2025, 18:30–20:00
Venue: Geidai-beya

 [Artist Profile]

Portrait of Argentine artist Juan Sorrentino standing in a bright studio, facing the camera.

Juan Solentino

Contemporary artist and experimental musician. Creates multimedia works including sculpture, performance, installation, video, photography, and recording, as well as sound sculptures and installations. His work is deeply connected to spatiality and functions as visual and auditory experiments. By integrating craft materials such as metal, wood, and electronic devices, he develops site-specific installations that expand the act of “listening” into multidimensional exploration. He challenges conventional notions of sound by reconstructing it as a physical and relational phenomenon.

An artist presenting the concept behind his art project.
Artist and participants sitting around a table, exchanging ideas.
Artist Juan listens with an interpreter as a local historian shares stories about the area’s history.
A shamisen player and a traditional music researcher explaining shamisen playing in a shoji-lined Japanese-style room.
After a lecture on the shamisen, artist Juan exchanges ideas with local community members.
Juan practicing taiko for the Suwa Shrine festival by striking a tire with drumsticks.
Juan watches local children practicing drumming using tires.
Juan talking with a dance teacher.
Juan visits Suwa Shrine with local community members as part of his research.
Juan watches local children practicing drumming using tires.
Juan drinking green tea and speaking with a local community member about tea and culture.
Juan practicing bon odori dance movements with local women and instructors.
Artist Juan joins a bon odori dance rehearsal, learning the movements in time with the music alongside local women and instructors.
Juan connects a tire to electronic equipment and explores the sound produced when the tire is struck, together with local community members.
Artist Juan explaining his work during the Suwa Shrine annual festival on August 24, 2025, with large photo prints displayed on an exterior wall.
A large orange figure-eight symbol, representing an infinite loop, is painted on the ground of a parking lot. Local community members stand on the lines and talk together while looking at the pattern.
A local woman explains her father’s activities using an enlarged early Showa-era family photograph.
A tire-based instrument inspired by a taiko drum carried on a festival mikoshi. Artist Juan speaks with participants as they try playing it.
Local community members touring with the festival floats of the Suwa Shrine annual festival watch a demonstration of the tire-based instrument created by Juan.
On August 26, 2025, artist Juan gives a report at a talk event held at Geidai-beya. In the back, President Hibino and other guests sit facing forward, while more than ten participants sit in a fan-shaped arrangement around them.