JR East has been positioning the sprawling new Takanawa Gateway City as a cultural hub since before it even opened. But the three-day NU Festival that took place there last weekend was a chance to see if there really was space for noncommercial art within what, PR guff aside, is basically a high-end shopping mall.
The festival, co-organized by JR East, was billed as a meeting of cutting-edge music, art and technology. It took its lead from Barcelona¡¯s Sonar festival, which curated the music lineup in the main room, in the complex¡¯s carpeted subterranean conference center, and a smaller art component at the Museum of Narratives.
Sonar¡¯s involvement brought cultural cachet to the fledgling fest, though not without a dose of controversy. Sonar faced a widespread artist boycott last year after its parent company was bought by KKR, a private equity firm with investments in Israel and the contentious Coastal GasLink pipeline in Canada.
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