Eighteen Years of the Chatty Art Exhibition, and Now
The group exhibition planned and led by director and artist Sho Sato (佐藤省), previously held at galleries in Ginza, moved to Session House 2F Garden for its 18th edition. We asked Sato to share his passionate feelings about this profusion of an exhibition, with both two-dimensional and three-dimensional works.
Art director: Sho Sato (佐藤省)
The “Chatty Art Exhibition: Message Art Exhibition vol.18,” held for the first time at Session House 2F Garden, successfully completed its run from November 10 to 16, 2025. I am now looking back and savoring its afterglow, revisiting the light and shade of the works by 60 people displayed in the Session House 2F Garden space and rereading the concepts submitted by the artists.
Looking back, this Message exhibition began when I was director of Gallery Yugen (ギャラリー悠玄) in Ginza, near Taimei Elementary School. Young artists wanted to interact across genres and generations, so for the first exhibition I invited as many as 100 people, each showing two works, using the first-floor, second-floor, third-floor and basement spaces. The 200 works were displayed in three layers of space, each with its own character, creating the harmony of a magnificent landscape. With “Now, This Moment” as the theme, everyone’s passion and abilities came to the fore.
At the opening party on the first day, each artist had “a moment to talk about their own work.” Participating artists listened to words conveying passionate, sincere attention to the works. The Message exhibition has always cherished that kind of fellowship.
After 18 years, it is now one work per person, and the time woven and concentrated over a year makes that single work shine.
This exhibition has proceeded not through applications from interested artists but through invitations from me. My policy in leading the Message exhibition is not to have works compete, but to “let the artist’s inner universe resonate within the space, with each work rising up from that space.”
The theme “Now, This Moment” naturally projects and tells of the artists’ ways of living and the phenomena of society, unfolding as two-dimensional and three-dimensional expression through many different approaches to form. It really is wonderfully varied!
Artistic expression is not some special field far removed from everyday life. What matters is creating an art space with a mediating power, where visitors and artists can “enjoy casual conversation around the works.” As words accumulate, our perspective and our sense of a work change... When the angle from which we look changes, a new expression or sensation of the work comes toward us... Connecting artists, works and those who view them in this way lets conversation flow naturally and leads to rich, blissful moments.
Chatty Art Exhibition
Words and works... With that in mind, each Message exhibition has continued to include a time called “Kotoba-gatari” (ことば語り, speaking words), presented by Tsubaki-za (椿座) as “an act of placing in words.” The four members’ words are not simply readings of poetry, haiku, tanka, novels and so on. Through highly creative vocal direction that values physicality, the resonance of voices illuminates the space in which the works are arranged, energy flows between people, and sometimes voices from those gathered in the venue join in. The abundance and tempo of the voices generate a distinctive spatial quality.
Speaking of the resonance of sound, for the exhibition’s first edition we invited double-bassist Tetsu Saitoh (齋藤徹), who let us hear “sound before sound.” In subsequent years he brought guests from many fields and delighted us. He played timbres and songs we did not ordinarily hear, improvising the solitude and sparkle of sound, and sometimes humor tinged with madness. Sadly, he passed away a few years ago, and I cannot express how much I regret that loss.
Gallery Yugen closed in winter 2016. We then held the exhibition at two other galleries, but the wave of urban redevelopment destined those galleries to relocate, and I spent nearly two years looking for a gallery. Eventually, I arrived at Session House 2F Garden. When I first visited Ito, the owner, I mentioned Tetsu Saitoh. Ito knew him too, and through this connection we were able to rent the Session House 2F Garden space. I am grateful for this mysterious connection.
Since it was my first time arranging an exhibition in the Session House 2F Garden space, I approached installation day with great nervousness. In practice, however, the spaciousness and brightness let the works breathe and put me at ease; the participating artists were invigorated by this new atmosphere, and installation proceeded smoothly. Fortunately, visitors received it very warmly too, making me think that perhaps the Session House 2F Garden space had been waiting for us...
We plan another exhibition in November 2026, and the worlds of the artists who support us, which will surely be further refined, have connected once again to the next stage. The joy of that, already looking toward this autumn,
is swelling within me as images joined to the space.
