Kamagasaki is an area in the northeastern part of Nishinari-ku, Osaka City, but the name does not appear on any maps. Kamagasaki" may be a situation in one's life where one feels like a loner with no place to go.

When there is a place and opportunity to express oneself, various interesting things can happen. We have been witnessing moments of weakness and strength in people who have made solitude their ally, and have been creating a "place for meeting and expression" in a corner of Kamagasaki for more than 20 years now.

Kamagasaki is changing quickly; many people are dying, the number of workers is decreasing, and the number of foreigners is increasing. The Airin Labor Welfare Center was closed and was to be rebuilt. Several years have passed since the idea of an arts center on the site of the center was conceived, and it has become the "Kamagasaki Arts Center Akankana Concept" in a completely weak state.

At this arts center, we call art the skill and ingenuity to live in this world: to be involved, to connect, to work, to represent, to call out, to respond, to circulate, and so on. At the Osaka Kansai International Arts Festival, we hope to create a place for communication in a miscellaneous space by exhibiting pictures, objects, and words expressed by the men and women of Kamagasaki and travelers.

We would like to spend time with visitors to the art festival in a leisurely dialogue, or to experience collaborative haiku and calligraphy, or to look at the 500 striped worms in the worm compost that are being grown at the Kamagasaki University of Art and Design.