Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, 1993 : Exhibition report

REGISTRATION The Registration section arranged and took delivery of all the art works in the exhibition. There were more than 170 works in over 150 crates from twelve countries. The task of organising this vast volume of artwork, recognising the variety in shapes and materials used in the Triennial art works, was logistically challenging and demanding. It was necessary for the Registration section to liaise constantly with twelve freight agents, airline staff, an insurance broker, Australian Customs and Australian Quarantine. Singapore Airlines arranged the transportation of the works from their country of origin to the Gallery and return, with the exception of New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. This exercise was further complicated by a number of works which were larger than cargo capacity of scheduled aircraft. Singapore Airlines made arrangements to specially schedule a ‘combi’ aircraft originating in Singapore to provide main deck cargo space for the many oversized crates. Logistically, the Triennial was an ambitious project. It required the Registration section of the Gallery to co-ordinate twelve freight agents in the region (plus one in New York), and to arrange the collection, packing/unpacking, and transportation to and from Brisbane, of the over one hundred and fifty works secured from international lenders. Until this exhibition the Gallery had only dealt with countries such as Japan and China in this region. In terms of support infrastructure available to handle the movement of fine art objects, Asia is not as well serviced as regions such as Europe, England or America. This, combined with the lack of Registrars in the region to provide advice, required the staff to rapidly acquire many new skills. The section needed knowledge of skilled and reliable freight agents, import and export procedures for each country and acceptable modes of transport. This knowledge enabled liaison with artists, dealers, galleries, embassies, and airlines as well as Customs and Quarantine officers to ensure the safe arrival and return of the works. Registration staff became aware of cultural etiquette when dealing with Asia Pacific countries. The Assistant Registrar was able to travel to Indonesia, Malaysia and Singapore to gain a first hand understanding of the services available and procedures, as well as to make personal contact with artists and staff of participating institutions. As a result of the skills developed through this project, and because no other museum in Australia had undertaken such an enormous project, the Assistant Registrar has written a user guide to freighting art in the Asia region for publication in the Newsletter of the Australian Registrars Committee. This will enable this information to be shared with colleagues in Australia, New Zealand, USA and the United Kingdom and it will also be available to other interested parties through the copy of the newsletter to be lodged with the Unesco-ICOM Museum Information Centre, Paris.