The Tokyo Tokyo Festival, an initiative led by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government and Arts Council Tokyo to drum up excitement in the run-up to the 2020 Olympic and Paralympic Games, recently announced the 13 projects which had been chosen among 2,436 proposals submitted from within Japan and overseas.

Art Project "Masayume"

One of the 13 projects already garnering attention is まさゆめ "Masayume," by the Japanese modern art collective [mé] (written in Japanese as 目, meaning "eye").

Inspired by a dream [mé] artist Haruka Kojin had in her childhood of a person's face floating above the city like the moon, Masayume ultimately aims to send a living person's face aloft above the skies of Tokyo in the summer of 2020.

The lucky face will be chosen by the collective between March 26th and June 2019. In Tokyo, they will hold several workshops to solicit participants. The general public can also participate through the project's website, regardless of gender, age or nationality.

According to the press release, [mé] hopes that "witnessing the formidable sight of a giant human head floating above the skies of Tokyo on the occasion of the world's largest event" will provide an opportunity for us as human beings to "reconsider the simultaneously individual and public nature of our lives."

How to participate

Step 1: take four photos of yourself from the waist up, one facing forward, two profiles (one for each side), and finally, a photo of the back of your head. The photos should be taken against a light, single-color background, with your face clearly visible and the photo not overly edited.

Step 2: Then, access the entry form page here.

Step 3: Input the required information (name, address, telephone number), upload your four photos (100 MB max each), and submit the form.

Masayume project flow

• Accepting submissions: March 26th to June, 2019
• "Face collecting" workshops: April to June, 2019. Volunteers will join [mé] as they head out into the streets of Tokyo to search for and collect "face" candidates.
• "Face" Conference: June 2019. Open to the public, the conference will consider what kind of face should be sent aloft high above Tokyo.
• Face sent afloat: Summer 2020. At several locations in Tokyo, the chosen face (head) will be seen in giant size floating in the skies for all to see.