2:30pm−4pm
Focusing on the Age of Sensibility:
Bringing Art’s Semantic Turn into Business
- Speakers: Suzuki Satoshi ｜ Moderator: Yamashita Yukako
Today, as AI increasingly replaces even human creativity and judgment, and our tastes and emotional tendencies are beginning to be analysed and predicted, perhaps we must not only trust the sensibilities that underpin our thinking, but also question their very nature. Culture and the arts have long served both to cultivate our sensibilities and to examine their meaning. The empathy or sense of dissonance that arises through encounters with works of art can prompt us to reflect on our feelings, and why they occur. In this talk, by reflecting on the importance of each individual’s sensibilities and the value of connections between people whose sensibilities differ, we will consider what society and culture might look like in a coming age shaped by sensibility.
Speaker:
Suzuki Satoshi (Chairman and Representative Director, POLA ORBIS HOLDINGS INC. / Chairman, Pola Art Foundation)
Moderator:
Yamashita Yukako (Art Producer / CEO, YMKY Inc.)
Speaker’s Profiles
- Suzuki Satoshi
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Born in Shizuoka Prefecture in 1954, he completed a master’s degree in Science and Engineering at Waseda University in 1979. After working at Honda R&D Co., Ltd., he joined POLA Cosmetics (now POLA) in 1986. He was appointed President of the company in 2000, became President and Representative Director of POLA ORBIS HOLDINGS INC. in 2006, and has served as Chairman and Representative Director since 2023.
He has served as Chairman of the Pola Art Foundation since 2000 and as a Councilor of the POLA Foundation of Japanese Culture since 2001. He was also a Visiting Professor at Tokyo University of the Arts from 2007 to 2011 and a Councilor of the National Museum of Western Art from 2011 to 2021.
Website:
https://www.po-holdings.co.jp/en/index.html
https://www.polamuseum.or.jp/en/ -
- Yamashita Yukako
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Born in Tokyo to a family that runs a 180-year-old tea ceremony utensils business in Kyoto.
After graduating from Keio University, she completed an MA in Art and Business at Sotheby’s Institute of Art in London. Following an internship at Sotheby’s London, she joined Sotheby’s Japan, where she oversaw the sales of contemporary art.
From 2017 to 2022, she was the Managing Director of the art gallery THE CLUB, a gallery established as part of CCC (Culture Convenience Club)’s art business initiative, located within GINZA SIX. From 2022, she served as Fair Director of Art Collaboration Kyoto (ACK) for four years, and in 2026, she assumed the role of Chairperson of the ACK Ambassadors, an intimate global network of established and next-generation collectors and cultural leaders united by a shared commitment to art and community.
She has since founded YMKY Inc., which handles art projects and cultural strategies both in Japan and internationally. Since 2022, she has served as a Growth Strategy Promotion Advisor for the City of Kyoto (focused on revitalizing the art market) and also works as an Artistic & Cultural Strategy Consultant for the Culture Vision Japan Foundation.
