Join us in witnessing the practices of young artists, and connecting to the possibilities of the performing arts of the future.

When we made the decision back in May to hold APAF online under the theme “Anti-body Experiment,” we couldn’t have predicted what would happen even a month into the future. Now, the situation remains unchanged. Bringing participants from all over Asia together in Tokyo doesn’t seem like something that will be happening any time soon. This year, we redesigned the programs to suit the online format and held an open call for participants in the summer, before ending up with three times the number of applications as last year, from both Japan and abroad. In this time of the pandemic, now more than ever we find ourselves seeking to connect with the people in different countries and regions that we can no longer meet with in person. I feel that this (along with the fact that there are significantly fewer performing arts productions currently taking place offline) is changing the intrinsic value of our encounters. I’m sure that our audience will have experienced this too. Both the final presentations of the Lab, and the online/offline hybrid performance of the Exhibition will be accessible to a global audience: in other words, each audience member will be linked with the rest of the world while they watch. “Anti-body Experiment,” then, could be considered an experiment in creating new connections and encounters. I look forward to having our audiences make those connections through APAF, both online and physically in Tokyo. 

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Junnosuke Tada, APAF Director