Yuri Furugo

A series by Dentsu Inc.'s Yutaka Miyakawa: "A Resident of the Marketing World Peeks into the World of Art."

To speak with Yuri Kogo, co-representative of Avex's art initiative "MEET YOUR ART," I visited their symbolic base, "WALL_alternative." My first encounter with MEET YOUR ART was at the "MEET YOUR ART FESTIVAL 2022 'New Soil'." Invited by a participating musician, I went to the Ebisu venue, which was packed with young attendees and buzzing with incredible energy. The festival later moved to Tennozu, and the initiative seems to be growing steadily as a business. What is its core? As a businessperson, I'm very curious...
 

◆Broadening Access

MEET YOUR ART began with the launch of a YouTube program in December 2020, so five years have passed since then. If we think of it as hop, step, jump, I feel we're now transitioning from hop to step.

The MEET YOUR ART initiative encompasses Media (YouTube channel), the annual MEET YOUR ART FESTIVAL , and WALL_alternative . Beyond that, we're currently collaborating with multiple businesses on space development and establishing bases. We also regularly handle PR for art events, form alliances with companies, and organize events matching artists with specific opportunities. Our scope keeps expanding—it feels like we're constantly running (laughs).

I hope MEET YOUR ART FESTIVAL becomes that first gateway for people who feel distant from art. I want them to take home the experience as a kind of entertainment, thinking, "Art is actually cool," and see it as a new personal value. Going to see art, buying art—those are wonderful things, but before that, there's real significance in broadening the entry point. This festival is in its fourth year, and last year we had 50,000 visitors. We're starting to see recognition that it happens every October permeating the art world. We're also getting positive feedback from people in adjacent industries like fashion and culture, which we can more easily reach. We're getting more inquiries from people wanting to collaborate, and even when talking to corporate representatives, someone in the group will often say, "I've been to the festival." That kind of external reaction is really increasing, and I feel we've reached a new step.

◆Connecting Artists with the Economic Society

Since my student days, I've wondered how artists could establish points of contact and monetization within the economic society. While entertainment industries like film and music have various platforms, artists in the fine art realm often lack such established platforms. This sense of gap led me to feel a personal mission: to become an "interpreter" connecting artists with society. That's why I joined Avex.

The music industry has always had diverse platforms, but just because you put a musician on one doesn't guarantee success for everyone. You're essentially investing in areas where the logic isn't fully established. Entertainment pursues those inexplicable yet profoundly moving moments within the human heart. Within this context, Avex achieves results by investing in the "soft" aspects and monetizes within the economic society. Furthermore, our strength lies in the spirit cultivated within the entertainment industry—or perhaps the spirit of the Avex community itself—which, in many ways, prioritizes "talent (musicians, artists) above all else." Even without an academic background, I aim to challenge myself in the artistic realm alongside artists, exploring new monetization points while holding onto these two core principles. This is where my personal challenge lies.

◆Creating Major Impact

There's a structural issue: unless the economic society has deep understanding and respect for art, natural connections are unlikely to form. The key question is how to bridge this gap. For the economic society, the crucial factor remains "how much impression (economic value, etc.) we can generate." Our business accelerated significantly after attracting 30,000 attendees at our 2022 festival and 50,000 last year. We are confident in our ability to increase domestic impressions and maintain our commitment to quality. We believe this approach can contribute to bridging that gap.

Beyond respect for art, I constantly feel the need for the entire art industry to create significant impact and generate economic ripple effects. This requires players who can take a bird's-eye view of the situation and think from an economic ripple perspective. However, I feel there aren't that many players currently capable of such an overview. In that sense, being able to connect these elements would certainly be beneficial. There are various art fairs and events domestically, and we collaborate particularly in the role of expanding international art festivals and urban art events. Moving forward, whenever we can provide value to various players in the art industry, we want to actively collaborate and jointly communicate the appeal of Japanese culture and arts to the world.

Furthermore, I believe that by achieving significant success as a business and clearly demonstrating that success to society, we must identify players who will follow in our footsteps—players who bridge the gap between the economic society and artists.

◆Polishing and Integrating

Currently, here at WALL_alternative, we are exhibiting works by Osamu Ohno (September 3–29, 2025). The exhibition title is "Bug-Fi." It embodies a quality that embraces even the unexpected situations caused by bugs. While not Ohno's work, as businesspeople creating new ventures, our own journey is also a continuous series of unpredictable events. I believe that's part of the excitement. For instance, this past year brought us deep encounters with traditional crafts and industries. While our business has primarily focused on contemporary art, such encounters were completely unforeseen initially. We sense that traditional crafts and industries face challenges similar to those in the art world. By redefining how they are presented and their societal value, we see potential for building new distribution channels and platforms.

Right now, these kinds of serendipitous expansions are constant, and we're always engaging with them. However, if this had happened when we launched MEET YOUR ART, it might have destabilized the core of our business structure. Our business vision is centered on how to create points of contact between art and society, and how to build new structures for monetization. We've established this mission as a shared understanding among the entire team, so now I believe we can handle any unforeseen event that comes our way (laughs). Building this far has its challenges, but as we keep moving forward with a clear vision, truly unwanted coincidences just disappear. People genuinely support us after seeing what we do, or want to collaborate. That's what our days are filled with now.

Mr. Ohno's work involves combining various materials—concrete, brass, wood—and then polishing them. He once said, "Right now, Japanese society has multiple unpredictable elements and feels unstable, but if we keep polishing and blending them, they might form into a single shape." I completely agree. Many things come our way, and I want to embrace them while polishing them.

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What struck me was when Mr. Kogo said, "We're just at the step." (Even though he's so successful! Just past the hop stage?) What does the jump look like? A truly good venture must be something that even outsiders want to imagine its leap. Starting this series with the angle, "A resident of the marketing world peeks into the world of art," was the right choice—I felt that deeply. (Yutaka Miyagawa)

Image Production: Satoshi Iwashita

MEET YOUR ART FESTIVAL 2025 Overview
■Dates:Friday, October 10 - Monday, October 13, 2025 (National Holiday)
■Location:Tennozu Canal Area, Tokyo
■ URL: https://avex.jp/meetyourart/festival/