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

exh ibition . The selection of participating artists was left up to each country, so any curatorial input from the organiser was lacking. But now I think these steps were a necessary process for a younger museum. This Part I I exh ibition in 1 980 was, in fact, the fi rst Asian Art Show. After the exh ibition, it was decided to hold a contemporary Asian art show every five years. The second exhibition in 1 985 focused more on younger artists than the fi rst one. At the third exhibition , the selection of the works was based on the theme 'Symbolic Vision in Contemporary Asian Life'. A focal point un ifying the overall exhibition was born. The Fukuoka Art Museum was able to make the selections of participating artists and works together with each country. The 4th Asian Art Show was held in 1 994. Several new attempts were made. The theme was 'Real ism As An Attitude.' The number of participating cou ntries increased to eighteen , and participating artists were decreased to only forty-eight. Although the exhibition space was the same, these changes meant there were about 1 0% of the number of artists participati ng 1 5 years ago. We intended to give each artist plenty of space - enough to present an idea so that it would be easier to comprehend. The previous three exhibitions were like the Olympics, with participants competing with each other under their national flags. We stopped exhibiting by the division of countries, but rather we divided the exhibits into six sections according to themes regard less of the countries. We began to turn our eyes to the expression of each artist. We invited one artist from each country and had them stay for three weeks during the exh ibition. They did open-studios, performances and artist talks. Every day there were more works than the day before , and the exhibition space gradually changed . The exh ibition was not static, but was dynamic and alive. A special exhi bition , 'Rickshaw Painting : Traffic Art in Bangladesh', was held at the same time. We wanted to investigate the possibility of Asian art lying outside of the Western modernism frame of 'art' and 'art museum' as such through this traffic art which is very much alive as a part of daily l ife in the city. I wi ll summarise the h istory of the Asian Art Show as follows: 1 . It changed from an art festival comparable to the Olympics to an exhibition with a unified perspective. We attempted to make the audience understand each individual art work. 2. By overcoming the exoticism and the dualism of 'West' versus 'East' the audience , the curators and also the artists themselves learned to appreciate the artistic expression of the contemporary artists who l ive at the same time. 3. We d id not want to make this exhibition like a competition. I nstead of giving awards, we contin ued to acquire works of undetermined value, and now we have over 600 contempora ry art works from Asian countries. I believe this is a u nique collection . 4. We began to seek out possibilities outside the frame of modernism, such as rickshaw painting. Based u pon our experience of Fukuoka Asian Art Shows, we are now preparing for a new museum for Asian Art. The birth of a new art museum, Fukuoka Asian Art Gallery, is about to take place based on the philosophy cultivated from these exhibitions, the items collected and the accumulated methodology. The 7th and 8th floors of this commercial building in a historical area, the heart of the city, wi ll be the Asian Art Gallery , opening i n March, 1 999. In the last two decades, a festival of Asian art became an exhibition of Asian art and that exhibition wil l eventually give birth to a museum for Asian Art. I think that is the history of the Fukuoka Asian Art Show. 96