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

MEDIA RELEASE: ASIA-PACIFIC TRIENNIAL OF CONTEMPORARY ART 2002: FACT SHEET • The Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art was the first and continues to be the only major series of exhibitions in the world to focus on the contemporary art of Asia and the Pacific. • Three Triennials have been staged since 1993, attended by a total of 355 000 visitors. Audience numbers have increased for each Triennial — with 60 000 visitors to the first APT in 1993, 120 000 in 1996, and 155 000 visitors in 1999. • The first three Triennials demonstrated the diversity of art practice across the region (from Pakistan to Japan) by showing 473 art works and performances by 220 artists from up to 20 different countries. APT 2002 is radically different in that it considers developments in contemporary art over recent decades, through in-depth explorations of 16 key artists and one collective of artists. • APT 2002 will be of similar scale and spectacle to its predecessors — physically occupying around 70 per cent of the Queensland Art Gallery’s exhibition space. • After a decade of successfully collecting, interpreting and exhibiting contemporary Asian and Pacific Art, and with the establishment of curatorial departments for contemporary Asian and Pacific Art, the Gallery had the confidence and expertise to develop and curate the APT internally. Director Doug Hall headed a team of staff curators: Suhanya Raffel, Head of Asian Art; Rhana Devenport, Asia-Pacific Triennial Senior Project Officer; Anne Kirker, Head of International Art; and Julie Ewington, Head of Australian Art. • The selection of artists has been largely inspired by the preoccupations of three key international avant-garde figures — Nam June Paik, Yayoi Kusama and Lee U-fan. The Gallery had recently acquired major works by them for its Kenneth and Yasuko Myer Collection of Contemporary Asian Art. Other artists in APT 2002 have been selected for the way in which they continued to explore the ideas and issues raised by these artists. • Themes addressed by APT 2002 include the impact of the moving image on the visual culture in the twentieth century, performance as a form of cultural expression in contemporary art, and the capacity of contemporary art to explore the complexities of globalisation. • The APT’s Opening Program of Events, from Friday September 13 to Sunday September 15, will feature artist talks, performances, lectures by distinguished international speakers, and topical panel discussions. • The key free performance event is Pasifika Divas, featuring 15 artists, including the Divas who are fa’afafine performers (fa’afafine means ‘like a woman’ in the Samoan language and denotes an active and creative cultural group within Pacific Islander communities). The event is an amalgamation of contemporary Pacific music, dance, satire, video and photographic projections, body adornment and eclectic fashion by leading and emerging Polynesian jewellers and designers from Aotearoa New Zealand. • The APT exhibitions have demonstrated ‘cultural tourism in action’ — in 1999 more than 42 per cent of visitors were from outside Brisbane (16.03 per cent from overseas; 14.94 per cent from interstate; and 11.68 per cent from regional Queensland) • The exhibition also succeeds in attracting young audiences — in 1999 almost 50 per cent of the audience was aged under 35. A program of activities specially devised for young people will be presented throughout the exhibition. See Preview for details. 80