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

In short, art is now becoming more conceptual than ever before in more flexible form . Meanwh ile, we cannot fail to notice technological developments in cheap, speedy and safe transportation. This has enabled art to reach or be seen by more viewers than ever before. Advances in the transportation industry have allowed more people to experience and to enjoy art in person instead of simply through reproductions on books and the Internet. The advancements in transportation have also enabled artists to produce and present large and complicated installations in d ifferent locations around the world. This contributes considerably to more free and complex means of expression in contemporary art. And this has made international Biennale style exhibitions (such as the APT) flourish everywhere in the world . These technological circumstances are closely related to the intermingling of cultures, the second point I mentioned above . Many artists and viewers are travelling around the world. Thus, having d irect contact with different cultures wh ile learn ing about art from publications and the I nternet, we have come to understand culture and art from a more universal viewpoint. This has mod ified the standards and stratification of art. People have realised that western art, despite its magnificent blossoming , can no longer assert an exclusive authority. The conflict between local and global elements has become one of the constant conditions of world art. Criticism of exoticism has encouraged the claim of identity. Even so, we have to give consideration to the fact that exoticism and identity are two sides of the same coin. This issue, which is still unresolved , continues to be one of the most important issues in art. Communication is becoming more frequent not among local ities but among d ifferent genres of creation . Fashion, architecture, video, animated cartoons, design and crafts, wh ich we used to treat as separate categories, are interspersed with one another and have come to have materials, methods and subjects in common . This also calls for alteration of our established way of thinking and will force us to re-define the notion of art. The third factor behind these phenomena is a change in the cl imate of global thinking. Since the end of the Cold War, we seldom talk about a great philosophical vision of the world . The conflict between commun ism and capitalism seems to have ended , and everything has become a matter of commerce. Instead of the visions of the world , · we are concerned with how to interpret the reality of our daily l ife, and attempts to propose an ideal model for a desirable future in a philosophical way seem to be in vain. Art too seems to miss having a grand subject. This may explain why the body, gender, sexuality, eroticism, family, friends, and the subtle beauty of daily objects has become the subject of art. And spiritual and rel igious subject matter is in some places, emerging because they only are now providing the anchor in l ife. (However, of course, these are the phenomena in rather modernised and peaceful countries and if the region is still in confl ict, an artist's concern may be more seriously pol itical.) In the future, these phenomena will be more common and art may, whether you like it or not, have the fol lowing characteristics . 1 . There will appear works made by using an enormous amount of information and images . Never conforming to any conventional form or style, they wil l be vivified with overwhelming quantities of images . Amalgamating such elements as photographs, computer _graphics, text and sounds, they may create a new, rich universe of artistic expression . Supported by h igh technology, art on the network or art as multimedia will quickly lose its material ity, changing into immaterial information. Therefore, some art will possibly exist in the form of copyright. 1 49