Jurriaan Cooiman

Jurriaan Cooiman

Founder and director of CULTURESCAPES
In 2014, a variety of events are planned in Japan and Switzerland to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the establishment of political relations between the two countries. One of these is an event named CULTURESCAPES Tokyo 2014 to be held in Switzerland (Sept. 27 – Nov. 22). The words culture and [land]scape were combined to create the new concept of CULTURESCAPES as the name for an event that focuses on the culture and arts of a particular country, city or region. From the first CULTURESCAPES festival was held in 2003 that focused on the country of Georgia and the second focused on the Ukraine, to last year’s festival focused on the Balkan region, the festival has consistently taken as its theme countries and regions marked by controversy and strife. In 2014, the year that Japan and Switzerland celebrate the 150th anniversary of the establishment of political relations between the two countries, CULTURESCAPES will focus on Tokyo, a city that mixes the traditional and the contemporary. Plans call for a program of events to be held in about 40 venues.