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

kinds of cosmopolitanism. There should be a difference between say a Bangkok factory worker who is working in Saudi Arabia and l iving in the wonderful air­ cond itioned spaces and academics or art curators having a bowl of noodles in Beijing. These are quite different kinds of in-between spaces . That is essentially what we can conclude. 7.3: Chinese Session Chair Claire Roberts The Chinese language session was attended by some thi rty people, including artists, curators, writers, academics, art educational ists, students, media and other interested ind ividuals. Our session was consciously unstructured to allow d ialogue between the participants and for issues deemed to be of interest to them to be raised . The first th ing that we d id was to re-arrange the furniture in the room , and the chairs were placed in a circular form which seemed more conducive to informal discussion . All of the participants then introduced themselves and gave a brief summary of who they were and they also chose to comment on why they were there. To start things roll ing, I asked people if they would like to first comment on this APT. Unfortunately, or perhaps interestingly, depending on your point of view and perspective, the d iscussion focused on this topic for the rest of the session . Firstly there was a strong endorsement of the APT and an expectation that it would continue, not necessarily in the current format, but that it must continue. There was an acknowledgment that art by artists from the Chinese-speaking world in terms of the number of artists was well represented i n APT3, with the exception of Hong Kong . There was extensive discussion about the curatorial structure and the curatorial process of selecting artists for the APT. A sense of amazement was expressed at the number of curators involved . The complexity of the curatorial structure was likened to that of a bureaucratic organisation in China. A question was also raised regarding the role of Australian curators in the selection of works, and the extent to which the exh ibition represented an Australian curatorial view. One of the participants likened the curatorial process for selecting artists for these large international exh ibitions as that of a doctor seeing h is patients. Participants questioned the geo-political forces underpinning the curatorial structure of the exhibition, and the crude categorisation of artists as either Chinese/Taiwanese/ Hong Kongese/Australian/Singaporean/Malaysian etc. It was felt that it was inappropriate for artists to be chosen on the basis of representing a particular country or culture, and that a new framework needed to be found . For participants from China arid Taiwan , issues related to identification with a particular nation state repeatedly influenced d iscussions and impeded d iscussion of broader cultural issues. The display of art works was also raised , and some participants wished to highlight sensitivities associated with the placement of artworks and the relationships establ ished by that placement. It was also noted that there seemed to be a hierarchy in operation with some artists in the crossing borders section of the exhibition maybe being privileged over others. Unfortunately, we ran out of time at this point. 7.4: Japanese Session Chair Morris Low Yesterday's bilingual session on Japanese art was a major revelation for myself, and hopefully for the aud ience . It was really only i n the shower this morning that all was revealed. At first glimpse most of the Japanese art does not appear very 'Japanese', but to use Marian Pastor-Races' term again, 'expo-art' rel ies on national categories in the sense of national identity. The first point I 'd l ike to make is that there is no Japanese word for 'identity' . It appears that in present-day Japan there is a lack of Japanese identity and this extends to artists as well. But the curator Erika Osaka confessed that the Japanese artists selected for the APT have more 1 36