Starting in 2025, Yurakucho Art Urbanism YAU will launch a collaborative project with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government Sewerage Bureau called "Zenigame Sewerage Research."
From Fri, March 13th to Sun, March 29th, 2026, Artist Tomoya Ishibashi and the Zenigame Sewerage Research Team will be holding an exhibition-style presentation at YAU CENTER Zenigame on the first floor of Zenigamecho Building.
01. What is "Zenigame Sewerage Research"?
How much do you know about sewers?
Sewers are spread throughout every corner of the city and are an essential lifeline for daily life, yet we don't see them on a daily basis.
How does sewage treatment work, with each person using approximately 220 liters of water per day, treating it within 24 hours, and releasing it into rivers and the ocean? And what if there were no sewers in this world?
The Zenigame Sewerage Research will begin in 2025. The team includes researchers with diverse backgrounds, including Artist, musicians, editors, and photographers, who will use fieldwork and research to uncover connections with the sewerage system from their individual perspectives and unravel its mechanisms within the context of its connection to the city.
The research theme for 2025-2026 is "Observe"
Sewage treatment systems, which require meticulously planned, advanced civil engineering and scientific techniques, as well as the power of microorganisms as decomposers, can be described as artificial structures that condense the system of a river, or as sophisticated technological complexes that intertwine nature and man-made elements.
Through research into sewer systems and surrounding facilities, such as pumping stations that pump sewage so that the sewer pipes do not go too deep underground, and water reclamation centers that process sewage continuously every day and restore it to clean water, participants will be able to rediscover what sewer systems are from their own perspectives.
In the presentation titled "Holes," which will be the final result of the project, the project will share the results of its research using manholes and drains, which are the entrances to underground sewers and holes scattered throughout the city, as its motif, and will present a work that focuses on the perspective of research member and Artist Ishibashi Tomoya.
02. Exhibition overview
Zenigame Sewerage Research Presentation Vol.1 Holes
Date: March 13th Fri– March 29th Sun, 2026
Opening hours: 12:00-19:00
Closed: Mondays and Tuesdays
Admission: Free
Venue: YAU CENTER Zenigame (Zenigame Place, 1F Zenigamecho Building, 2-6-3 Otemachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo)
Google Maps▶︎ https://maps.app.goo.gl/x3WRzKp6CLYtstyD7
Artist Profile
Exhibiting artist: Tomoya Ishibashi
Born in Saitama, Japan in 1990. Studied biology at university. Currently a doctoral student at IAMAS (Institute of Advanced Media Arts and Sciences).
https://www.shibashiishibashi.com/
Zengame Sewerage Research Team:
Moe Nishiyama (editor), Ho (Artist), Arata Mino (photographer/stage designer), Toru Umehara (musician/artist), Shohei Ishiguro (architect), Toshiyuki Okubo (spatial designer), Momoko Miyamoto (spatial planner), Ken Yamamoto (facilitator), Junpei Mori (architect), Yuka Kurita (art coordinator), Yuzuka Kodama (art coordinator), Hatsuki Nakamori (YAU staff), etc. Shintaro (Area Studies), Hazuki Nakamori (Mitsubishi Estate, in charge of YAU), and others. *In no particular order
[Credits.]
Editing: Moe Nishiyama
Photo: Arata Mino
Design: Reio Arimoto
Venue Composition: Toru Umehara
Research/Exhibition Direction: Junpei Mori, Hazuki Nakamori
Research Project Management: Yuka Kurita
Exhibition Project Management: Shintaro Kodama
Organizer Yurakucho Art Urbanism YAU
Special cooperation: Yurakucho Geidai Campus, Tokyo University of the Arts Art Future Research Center
Research cooperation: Bureau of Sewerage, Tokyo Metropolitan Government
What is Venue [YAU CETNER Zenigame]?
It will open in 2025 in Zenigame Place, a facility located on the upper floors of Zenigamecho Pumping Station, which functions as an important piece of infrastructure for transporting wastewater from Marunouchi and other areas to the Water Reclamation Center. Aiming to be an engine for creative urban development that is close to the daily life of the city, it will be a base for activities that will develop in stages, opening up the creative process of Artist to the city itself.
★YAU OPEN STUDIO '26 will be held simultaneously from Fri, March 13th to Sun March 15th!
For more information, please visit the following web page
https://arturbanism.jp/news/yauopenstudio2026/
