Home / Events / Open Base Saturdays #5: Reluctance to Touch Others
Meetup series

Open Base Saturdays #5: Reluctance to Touch Others

2026.10.03(Sat)
Civic Creative Base Tokyo [CCBT] 3F BASE (Talk, Base After Hours)
Date & Time
October 3 (Sat) 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm (Open 5:30 p.m.)
Venue
Civic Creative Base Tokyo [CCBT] 3F BASE (Talk, Base After Hours)
Capacity
30
Admission
free
Registration
No registration required. Same-day registration only.(If you wish to participate, please come directly to the venue.)

Guests: Imashuku Mew (poet, artist)
Moderator: Hara Izumi (Civic Creative Base Tokyo [CCBT])


Open Base Saturdays are held at CCBT every first Saturday.
The fifth talk in the series features the artist Imashuku Mew.


Open Base Saturdays is a spin-off of the CCBT Meetup series of events that explores the concept of civic creativity through CCBT’s annual theme. Each session invites a guest from a different field to examine the annual theme from various angles.

The fifth edition’s guest speaker is artist Imashuku Mew. In her work, Imajuku places great significance on performing in public spaces. As epitomized by packed passenger trains, urban life often involves being in close proximity to others, yet we frequently feel hesitant about physical contact or actual interaction with them. In the talk, she reflects on our relationships with others and the environment within such urban spaces, and on new communities and the city itself.

Following the talk, Base After Hours offers an informal forum for taking a closer look at CCBT’s Tech Lab, chatting with other attendees in the Base space, asking the guest further questions, and reading books.

Audiences are welcome to bring their own drinks, sandwiches, and snacks to Open Base Saturdays.

Open Base Saturdays


This Meetup series is held on the first Saturday of every month. It invites guest speakers with different expertise and perspectives to explore the essence of CCBT’s annual theme from various angles. Guests are selected based on recommendations from previous guests, forming a relay of speakers. After the talk, audiences can chat at the After-Hours Base event held in the Base space on the third floor of CCBT.

Imashuku Mew

poet, artist

Imashuku Mew works at the intersection of poetry and contemporary art, seeking to redefine intimacy and violence. Using mediums that activate skin sensations in a broad sense such as heat, pressure, vibration, and loss of balance, she constructs devices and situations that blur the boundaries between the self and others. Through a practice that involves both herself and others in these experiences, she proposes new modalities of coexistence within intimate dyads or in public spaces. Imashuku’s major exhibitions and performances include a public experiment with Pressure-Pleasure (BUoY Arts Center Tokyo, 2026), a device where participants enter vacuum bags and experience pressure synchronized with their breathing, and the group exhibition MOT’s 30th Anniversary Exhibition: Choreographies of the Everyday (Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, 2025). Her major awards include the 1st Nishiwaki Junzaburo Prize (Newcomer Award) and the Tokyo Governor’s Award at the 59th Japan Book Design Awards.

https://mewimas.com/https://www.instagram.com/mewimas/

Hara Izumi

Born in Fukuoka Prefecture, Hara Izumi is a member of the CCBT team. After graduating from art college, she remained fascinated by the question of what is means for people to look at a work of art, and pursued masters-level and doctoral research in neuroscience at, respectively, the Kyushu University Graduate School of Integrated Frontier Sciences and the University of Osaka Graduate School of Medicine. In 2018, she joined the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media, where she worked in education and outreach. In 2023, Hara took up at a position as a researcher at the National Center for Art Research, before assuming her current position in 2025. Her co-authored publications include How Do We Proceed from Here? Past and Future Interactive Appreciation: Possibilities of Art Communication (2023, Tankosha).

Production
Civic Creative Base Tokyo [CCBT]
Organizer
Tokyo Metropolitan Government, Civic Creative Base Tokyo [CCBT] (Arts Council Tokyo, Tokyo Metropolitan Foundation for History and Culture)