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

National exhibitions In Sydney we have seen national shows from India, China, Taiwan , Japan . These represented particular curatorial visions and by no means summarised the intri cacies of art from these countries. Often structured in a complex way, they made u s look and think abo ut art from other parts and break down accepted categories about the art of these cultures. Two variations on this national model have been a Tha i/Australian exh ibition and an exh ibition of artists from Singapore and Australia. Survey Exhi bitions We are very familiar i n Australia with the survey exhibition: a large g roup show where no one mode of artistic activity is privileged over another. Most surveys are put together by one curator, often resulting in one unified vision. The Asia-Pacific Triennial is one of its kind , having been put together by no less than forty-two curators. When doing these kind of exh ibitions, we need to be wary that statements of social, politica l and aesthetic u rgency d o not get swallowed b y the whole i n a festive atmosphere o f optimism. I have heard many comments in the last few days about the festive atmosphere of the exhibition and the conference; about the optimism that is present, the carnival-l i ke atmosphere . One speaker cited the 'endless flow of polymorphic production' i n the exhibition (Margo Neale) . However, I do not see this Asia-Pacific Triennial as bei ng optimistic. I nstead , I see many rather g rim statements. And we have heard similar statements in this conference: Deepak Ananth said 'religious fundamentalism i n I ndia calls for vig ilance on the part of artists'. Chumpon Apisuk spoke about the social dimension and asked : 'What is the socia l d imension? I s it something we observe or something we live i n?' David Elliott spoke about 'misunderstandings'. Nalini Malani suggested that 'the content is much larger than the art'. Jonathan Mane-Wheoki discussed the term 'gobbleisation' and suggested usi ng the term 'post-European' rather than 'post-colonial' for the culture of th is immediate reg ion. Rhana Devenport cited the New Zealand artists who said , 'you r time and you r space a re not my time and my space'. Coco Fusco has suggested that feminists and artists of colour need to look at 'strategi c essentialism' 3 wh ich i s a position located somewhere between t he essentiali sm that we are a l l working so hard t o deconstruct, and t he formulations o f poststructuralism that decla re t he death o f t he subject, t he end o f meaning , t he decli ne o f t he social and t he failure o f pol itica l resistance. It does come down to listening to the specificity of the voices we are dealing with . Such specificity is complex. The APT has an important role to play as a forum and meeting place for the ideas and issues that are important to this region. It is a kind of host. But let us not rely on the APT to d o a l l t he work. Let us explore other curatorial strategies for exhibitions. I want to tell you about one project that I am currently working on. 'Fire and Life' is a residency and exhibition exchange. It was conceived by myself, Julie Ewington and Alison Carroll , and we i nvited the Bombay curator Chaitanya Sambrani to work with us. Five Australian artists wil l travel to five different Indian cities and do residencies of four weeks each . They have been paired with five I ndian artists. At the close of the residency there wil l be five two-person exhibitions. Next year, the five I ndians will visit Australia and t he same process will take place: residencies and another set of two-person exhi bitions. There wil l be two catalogues and work will be freighted to and fro , so that artists are not u nder pressu re to do all their artwork du ri ng the residency. 1 04