Planetary YUI :: Okinowar Festival

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

OKINOWAR WEEK  07.–08.08.2026
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 Schule
ACCESS  SAVVY is accessible by wheelchair

Planetary YUI – Arts for Living Together is a multidisciplinary cultural programme presented at SAVVY Contemporary as part of OkiNoWar 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 programme expands the philosophy of YUI onto a broader, planetary scale, moving across histories of colonialism, war, migration, diaspora, memory, resistance, non-violence, and healing. The connection with São Paulo is especially important, as Brazil has a large Okinawan diaspora community, and through Victor Kinjo, Okinawan memory has continued to be inherited 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, body, and art. It doesn't seek to present Okinawa solely through histories of war and victimhood. By connecting past and present, we rather aim to create a space in which we can collectively ask: How can we live together? 

The program at SAVVY Contemporary presents 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.