Beyond the Future: Papers from the Third Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

the process of u rban modernisation . The result promises to be an even more hybrid, complex, open and flexible urban scene leading the Chinese capital towards the next m illennium . In fact, Yung Ho Chang's understanding of and approach to the urban cond itions in Asia are shared by many colleagues all around the region, from Japan to Singapore via Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur. Also, one should not overlook the importance of the vernacular tradition inscribed in modern Asian arch itectural culture, promoted by h istorical figures such as Charles Correa. If Koolhaas' 'Generic City' is a specu lative interpretation of the u rban mutation in Asia wh ich can have an incredibly energetic and dynamic impact on the future of global architecture and urbanism, and even on visual arts in general, the 'local tendency' represented by Yung Ho Chang and other Asian architects shows another, equally efficient, side of the same coin of the current 'glocal' negotiation . Noticing the importance of the issue of global cities in the current restructuri ng of the economic and cultural world, more and more artists decide to focus their creative activities on the issue. Travelling through the network of global (or 'glocal') cities, they witness and examine the urban and demographic changes in those particularly interesting spaces, either neutrally or critically. The works of Andreas Gursky, Thomas Struth , and especially Agalai Konrad , among others, are examples of these explorations. Coming from the West and often focusing on the non-western metropol is, they frequently use photography and video to record their fascination with the tension between the freshness and the chaos, the dynamism and poetics generated by the urban mutations. On the other hand, artists from the 'non-western' cities such as Bodys lsek Kingelez, Liew Kung Yu and Xu Tan, along with many others, use various media from installation to video, from photography to performance, etc. to show their observations and imagination of the urban future of their worlds. Oscillating between excitement and i rony, between pleasure and critique, their works expose the dynamic shifts in their cities which are becoming an increasingly decisive force in today's globalisation and , more significantly, incarnate the formation of a new modernity beyond the western trad ition. Taking advantage of the up-to-date facilities offered by new communication technologies, the Chinese artist Chen Zhen , living between Paris and h is natal Shanghai, is developing a long term project to report urban changes in both cities on the I nternet. The online l ive-show not only allows Internet users to follow the latest changes in those cities, but also provides art creation with a new strategy which recalls directly the functioning of the network of global/'glocal' cities itself. The art institution and globalisation Today's global isation is no doubt a product of trans-national capitalism facilitated by the developments of new communication technologies and international travels. It represents the contradictory and intense possibilities of economic, cultural and social changes in both the developed and developing worlds, namely the West and 'Non-West'. The developed economies wil l accumulate their wealth even faster and be re-empowered to an unprecedented extent. The 'non-western ' world may further lose its power under the new exploitation by the West. However, there are also chances that the developing world will reverse the situation and seize globalisation as an opportun ity of economic, cultural and social improvement and even booming growth. This is effectively the case that one can observe in the recent growth in the Asia Pacific region, for example. The result is the beginning of a new negotiation of the world order with new rules of the game . Accordingly, culture and art creation are being instantly and deeply involved with such a new negotiation . As we have emphasised , the new typology of global economic and cultural mutation today is global networking . In the meantime, it's clear that institutional isation of art, which has always been a major influence in the evolution of art history, becomes an even stronger power determining the situation and future of creation when the institutions go global . In fact, globalisation of art institutions is now a major concern for many art institutions, especially for the already established, wealthy and powerful museums in the western metropolis. They attempt to ally themselves with the strategies of global expansion used by trans-national corporations by setting up branches in some key cities in the global network. At the same time, conceptions and organ isation of art events in those institutions resemble more and more operations practised by business enterprises. All these rem ind us of the settling of Disneylands all around the world . Museums today are contributing actively to the process of theme-park-isation and homogen isation of the global visual environment. We have known for 1 03