Present Encounters : Papers from the conference of the Second Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, 1996

colon isation . I n the context of today's debate , we need to recognise that 'Present Encounters' may be phenomena as transient as past hegemonies. There are no immutable hegemonies here, not even the hegemony of modernism or postmodemism and their attendant theoretical debates, some of which can be seen as obscurantist as medieval scholastics debati ng how many angels can dance on the head of a pi n. I n the demands of reality theoretical discourse is, I bel ieve, secondary to the issues of social and cultural concern with which artists are engaged , i nclud ing issues of the environment, participation, democracy and gender. Today, contemporary art is inevitably the product of past and present cultural encounters. We hope to be part of an important new debate that is developing in the region by exami n i ng modern ism i n the twentieth century through a major exhibition on this subject in the year 2000. We need to accept that all dynamic culture has aspects of syncretism. As I ndonesian artist Nindityo Adipumomo, represented in the Second Triennial, has said : I constantly experience a terrifying confrontation of Western and Eastern (Javanese) values. But it is fascinating because in this confrontation the flames of tradition , change and renewal are contained . Tradition , change and renewal; but much of the art in this exhi bition goes beyond renewal to metamorphosis. Papua New Guinean artists M ichael and Anna Mel state 'Our role as contemporary artists in Papua New Guinea is to be able to draw on our rich heritage and enunciate and revitalise these processes and practices today' . In many ways Yukinori Yanagi's ant farm and Cai Guo Qiang's planned explosion on the Brisbane River stand at the two polar extremes of the metaphysical concepts of the Asia­ Pacific Triennial. Both are about crossing cultures and change, but in one it is an evolutionary i f random change caused by mixing cultures while the other would have been an explosive com ing together o f diverse ancient and modem elements. Cultu ral interaction is not always on terms of equality. Issues of colonisation are very much i n the past, but this exhibition conveys a strong intimation o f a reaction against contin u i ng cultural and economic imperialism by the first world and the destruction of loca l identities and cultu ral values through unequal power relationships. Lingering Cold War hegemonies and new power politics combine to make the world an uneasy place, full of uncertainties and tensions, as well as possibilities. Contemporary art continues to reflect these uncertainties. The positive aspect of g rowing world interdependence and intercultu ral exchanges is revealed in the stimulating and generous sharing of ideas at events such as the Triennial. The issues raised by the Asia-Pacific Triennial will not be easily resolved but the exchange generated wil l , it is to be hoped , provide an approach open to the future i n which we can recognise what we have i n common yet respect what is different. 22