Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, 1993 : Exhibition report

CONFERENCE A major international conference was held in association with the Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art at the Queensland Art Gallery. The four day conference was entitled 'Identity, Tradition and Change: Contemporary Art of the Asia Pacific Region’ and took place from Friday 17 to Monday 20 September. The conference, conducted in association with Griffith University’s Centre for the Study of Australia-Asia Relations, was fully subscribed with 450 participants. It was held in the Cultural Centre Auditorium and all sessions were extraordinarily well attended for an academic conference. The conference has been acknowledged as one of the most dynamic and significant art conferences held in Australia, breaking new ground and opening a new dialogue in contemporary art. Please refer to the Conference program (Appendix IV) for specific details. Distinguished scholars and professionals from throughout Australia, New Zealand and the Asia-Pacific region, the Neineriands, the United States and the United Kingdom attended the conference. Delegates represented staff of art galleries and museums including the Directors of the Hara Museum of Contemporary Art (Tokyo), the Museum of Contemporary Art (Sydney, Australia), the National Gallery of New Zealand, and the Museum of Modern Art (Oxford, England). In addition, delegates were also drawn from senior staff and postgraduate students of tertiary institutions - from departments of Art History, Visual Arts and Asian Studies, at universities and art colleges. The multi-disciplinary aspect of the conference was an important factor in placing discussion of the art in context. There were thirty-eight speakers from Asia and the Pacific, but a large number of delegates, including thirty-seven funded Asian and Pacific artists and some self-funded artists and critics from the region, also attended. A major objective of the conference was to utilise the opportunity provided by the visit to Brisbane of so many of the international scholars and artists who had been involved with the Gallery in the preparations for the exhibition and accompanying publications, by providing a forum for informed debate and critical discussion on the art of the region. One of the main intentions was to generate debate that would be a positive contribution towards the future development of the Triennial and this was certainly achieved. The conference comprised four sections: (1) Four country-specific sessions, entitled ‘Contemporary Art and Cultural Identity’. Speakers addressed this theme in national, regional and international contexts, including issues relevant to their country. (2) Four ’workshop’ sessions with specific topics and participants mainly consisting of artists exhibiting in the Triennial. The topics that were identified were: (i) women artists (ii) indigenous art (iii) installation as social metaphor (iv) religion and spirituality and cultural contexts (3) Artists’ talks and performances, which took place in the Gallery accompanying their art works, were an integral part of the conference. (4) Two ’critics’ sessions on the final day of the conference, in which distinguished scholars, curators and art critics reviewed the exhibition plus themes and issues raised throughout the conference, from a personal perspective, and suggested ideas for the future development of the next two Triennials in 1996 and 1999.