APT 2002 Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art, Brisbane, Australia : Report

REGISTRATION Suh Do-Ho, Blue-green bridge, APT 2002 installation view OVERVIEW The movement of art objects to/from Brisbane was planned and undertaken by the Registration Section in consultation with the APT Project Office and in consideration of the needs of the Exhibitions and Conservation Sections. Primarily, the work of the Section involved: • liaison with lenders and the issuing of loan agreements • engaging a shipping agent in each country to handle export/import formalities • liaison with selected carriers re scheduling • compliance with the regulations of the Australian Customs Service (ACS) and of the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service (AQIS) • insurance of loans • unpacking/repacking, processing and despatch of loans • finalisation of loan transactions Seventy-one art objects were brought to Brisbane from sources within Australia and from 8 other countries. Domestic loans were transported by road and air, those from international lenders were transported by air and sea; objects not acquired and retained for the Collection were returned by the same means at the end of the exhibition. In addition, the Section liaised with the ACS and the AQIS to facilitate the importation/exportation of costumes for the ‘Pasifika Divas’ performance. ‘APT 2002’ is the first occasion for which works of substantial value and/or fragile condition were borrowed from institutional collections and for which a courier was requested by the lender. The attention required in co-ordinating courier-accompanied consignments greatly added to the Section’s workload and the movement of large art works, the size of which precluded them from flying directly to Brisbane, required further planning of road freight connections. The inclusion of higher value art works markedly increased insurance costs as well as the Gallery’s exposure in the event of damage in transit or whilst in the possession of the Gallery. The assistance provided by the Brisbane office of Singapore Airlines Cargo in organising and monitoring flights was, as per previous APTs, exceptional and contributed largely to the successful movement of consignments by that carrier. 36