Since its birth in 2018, Tokyo Love Hotels has showcased over 300 local and international artists, pop-ups, and performance acts. In collaboration with Metropolis, Tokyo Love Hotels cherry-picks 3 talents each month to be featured as LOVEHO SELECTS, showcasing artists and small businesses to readers and culture enthusiasts alike.

Tokyo Love Hotels is an art-event organization based in Tokyo, Japan, that gathers local and international talents of all ranges to share a night of art, music, experiences, and love with the community. They support artists by providing space for them to perform, promote, network, sell, and exhibit their work; free of charge and commission.

Artist: Solene Ballesta

LoveHo says: 

We are honored to have Solene Ballesta as the upcoming featured artist at Tokyo Love Hotels on August 31st! Solene has always been one who understands the LoveHo values, and we are excited to yet again step into her captivating, eerie, and beautiful world. She is a multi-talented and diverse artist who manages to capture the in-between of the humane and the other-worldly regardless of project or exhibition. 

Biography:

Solene Ballesta is a French multidisciplinary artist based in Tokyo. She graduated from La Sorbonne University in Paris with a degree in Cinema and Contemporary Art studies. Her work spans various mediums and genres, from documentary to fashion, portrait to luxury. She won the PICTO Award for Young Fashion Photography in 2014 and has exhibited at the Louvre Museum, Galliera Fashion Museum in Paris, and various international art fairs.

In 2019, she moved to Japan, first signed into a photography agency, then founded her own studio, focusing on conceptual photographs, videos, and installations. Solene is currently the full-time art director for Tokyo Weekender magazine, overseeing the Fashion section. She continues to explore portraiture, surrealism, and the fusion of photography, video, performance, and installations.

Message from Solene Ballesta: 

“Exalting summer is a time for traveling and exploring, blooming with new opportunities and experimenting with creative expressions. I’m thrilled to announce that I’ll be part of curating the next Tokyo Love Hotels event on August 31, bringing together all my favorite artists and invading HVEN’s space with my art family. This event is all about traveling in space and through arts, connecting people, and sharing a new, vibrant experience.“

Instagram: @soleneballesta

DJ: intoxxy

LoveHo says: 

On August 31st, intoxxy will grace the DJ booth at Tokyo Love Hotels, bringing both the community and newcomers together. Intoxxy’s knowledge of the underground and up-and-coming scene is a given, guaranteeing any avid listener with a good time. Anyone in support of the queer community is an ally of ours, and intoxxy stands on the frontlines.

Biography:

A South Korea-born, Tokyo-based DJ/Producer active in the queer scene in Tokyo, intoxxy started his career in 2016 in Kyoto, and since moving to Tokyo in 2022, his style has been focused on showcasing bass-heavy, invigorating sounds all across the genre spectrum, while regularly releasing club-friendly remixes on Soundcloud.

intoxxy epitomizes the queer underground spirit from Korea with his profound adoration for club music while aspiring to break boundaries as a genre-defying selector and a community-focused organizer in Japan.

Since 2023, intoxxy has been a resident of Seoul’s VISLA FM, promoting queer talent based in Asia.

And in 2024, along with DJs Munéo and MELEETIME, he launched ‘FETCH’, a party mainly focusing on expanding the queer underground scene in Tokyo in collaboration with local and international queer talent.

Message from intoxxy:

“As an organizer, my dream is to have so many diverse talented queer DJs and producers thriving from the Japanese underground scene so that I don’t need to figure out where the queer underground DJs are to book.

It is still quite a hard journey, but someday I hope the queer scene is just vibrant with interesting music and community-focused positive energy, and I aspire to contribute to that change as much as I can.”

Instagram: @intoxxy

Butoh Dancer: Kana Kitty

LoveHo says: 

One of our main acts at our upcoming Tokyo Love Hotels on August 31st: Kana Kitty. An avant-garde butoh dancer that brings traditional butoh dancing to new heights. With original expression and creative approaches, she elevates and redefines, bringing fresh novelty and experimentalism to each performance. 

Biography:

Butoh dancer. Kana Kitty began dancing independently without a teacher in order to explore her own expression. She has been invited to many national and international art festivals in Europe and abroad and has performed in many films, including Ossan’s Love the Movie and DIR EN GREY’s music video, and performed at MUTEK in 2021&22. She also performs with techno DJs, models for fashion brands and is involved in a wide range of other activities, striving to expand the recognition of butoh and present the next generation of butoh.

Message from Kana Kitty:

“I am very much looking forward to performing at Tokyo Love Hotels for the first time. We will take you into space on a midsummer night!”

Instagram: @kk_sinsoseek_