Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, 1993 : Exhibition report

international Conference being organised in association with Griffith University’s Centre for the Study of Australia-Asia Relations, together with a program of artists talks "and lectures, will be held. The Gallery wishes the Triennial to grow into a forum for expanding and presenting the diverse methods of art practice within Asia and the Pacific. The Triennial offers the opportunity to challenge pre-existing views held in the West about the art of Asia in particular. It is also important to note that a project such as this gives the opportunity to provide a new approach to the interpretation of art away from the Western modernist tradition, and to reveal an art which can be regionally specific while expressing ideas and issues within an international context and with international relevance. From the first, the Asia-Pacific Triennial was not seen as an Asia-Australia dialogue but as a facilitator for debate and ideas. There was no fixed and closed curatorial position adopted by the selectors. This is a project undertaken on the basis of intellectual equality to disclose knowledge and experience (not comfortable cohesion), regardless of.cultural, social or spiritual differences. Extract from "DIVERSITY AND DYNAMISM: FROM EXTRAREGIONALISM TO INTRAREGIONALISM?" by Caroline Turner The first ‘Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ brings together nearly two hundred works by seventy-six artists from twelve countries and Hong Kong. The Triennial is an ongoing project which will see two further exhibitions in this decade-in 1S96 and 1999. The title ‘Asia-Pacific’ for this project is not conceived as suggesting a common cultural identity or a perceived homogeneity. Yet this part of the world is establishing contexts for intraregional cooperation and, given its growing political, strategic and economic significance, it is inevitable that its contemporary cultures and art, which in turn mirror the dynamic changes now so characteristic of the region, should receive greater global attention. While there have been exhibitions of South-East Asian and East Asian art within Asia, and in particular in Fukuoka in Japan, the ‘Asia-Pacific Triennial’ is the first exhibition of this scale to focus on the Asia-Pacific region. As Doug Hall suggests in the Foreword to this catalogue, in the context of Australia’s geographical proximity and developing relations with the countries of Asia and the Pacific, it seems logical and indeed inevitable that an Australian art museum would take up the challenge of a major series of exhibitions and forums concentrating on the vitality and diversity of the region’s contemporary art. It is the intention of the Triennial through its publications and associated Conference to provide a forum and context for new ways of looking at art at the close of this century and at the beginning of what is undoubtedly a new era for our region.Fundamental to the Triennial's philosophy is that it is impossible to predetermine the outcomes of such a project, but that intellectual and artistic exchanges of ideas are of the greatest importance. It may not be until after the third Triennial in 1999 that any clear pattern will emerge. The Asia-Pacific Triennial is intended to initiate a dialogue between artists and art experts in the countries of the region. The project has evolved over two and a half years of research as an integrated process of consultation with art experts in each of the countries.