Planetary YUI :: Okinowar Festival

Join us for an exhibition featuring film screenings, workshops, artist talks, performances, food, and music with artists from Okinawa: 

OKINOWAR WEEK  August 7–8, 2026
WITH  Riko Sugama, Thaís Omine, Victor Kinjo, Nanyō Unten, Hiroya Maeda, Aki Maeda, Toyomitsu Higa, Akihito Yagi, Takumi Hosokawa, Ayaka Nakazato, Rita Sugama, Olga Futemma, André Okuma, Igor Shin, Marcia Vaitsman, Makoto Inoue, Riko Berlin Sanshin School
ACCESS  SAVVY is wheelchair accessible

Planetary YUI – Arts for Living Together is a multidisciplinary cultural program presented at SAVVY Contemporary as part ofOkiNoWar WEEK, connecting Okinawa, São Paulo, and Berlin.

“YUI” (結) is a concept rooted in Okinawa, referring to human connection, mutual support, communal care, and living together through interdependence. This program expands the philosophy of YUI to a broader, planetary scale, traversing histories of colonialism, war, migration, diaspora, memory, resistance, nonviolence, and healing. The connection with São Paulo is particularly important, as Brazil is home to a large Okinawan diaspora community, and through Victor Kinjo, Okinawan memory has continued to be passed down outside the Japanese archipelago in its own distinct way.

Planetary YUI understands Okinawa not as a single island or region, but as a network spreading across the world through migration, memory, the body, and art. It does not seek to present Okinawa solely through histories of war and victimhood. By connecting the past and the present, we aim instead to create a space in which we can collectively ask: How can we live together? 

The program at SAVVY Contemporary features Toyomitsu Higa’s photography, Nanyō Unten’s calligraphy, Hiroya Maeda’s works, and workshops in Ryukyuan dance, uta-sanshin, calligraphy, and karate, re-presenting art as a technique for living together.