The Sixth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

21 Director’s foreword Tony Ellwood With each iteration since 1993, the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art has taken on new and surprising forms. It remains the only major recurring exhibition in the world to maintain a focus on the contemporary art of Asia, Australia and the Pacific, and ‘The 6th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’ (APT6) reaches into a wider realm than ever before. It looks toward the dynamic region of West Asia and continues to explore the art of the Pacific. The exhibition includes more than 100 artists, many from countries which have never before featured in a Triennial: Tibet, North Korea (DPRK), Turkey and Iran, and countries of the Mekong region, such as Cambodia and Myanmar (Burma). The last Triennial in 2006 marked the launch of our second site, the Gallery of Modern Art (GoMA). This time, the Triennial occupies this wonderful building in its entirety, along with the Queensland Art Gallery’s iconic Watermall and adjoining galleries. The exhibition series has introduced many artists to Australian audiences, and this, of course, continues with APT6. An event of this scale will naturally strain at the bonds of any overarching themes, however, APT6 has, at its core, a long-held interest in collaboration, interconnectivity and cross-disciplinary practice. This is expressed in many ways, from close partnerships between artists to larger scale and less predictable forms of connection and collaboration. Three major multi-artist projects examine some of these themes, and have been coordinated in collaboration with co-curators working in the field. Focusing on artists working in the Mekong River region of South-East Asia, The Mekong is an ambitious consideration of art from Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar. Another multi-artist project, Pacific Reggae: Roots Beyond the Reef, continues the Triennial’s engagement with the contemporary culture of the Pacific, in this case revealing reggae music’s responsiveness to influences of location and technology, and the genre’s ability to adapt from Jamaica to the Pacific. The third project presents a major display of works, in a variety of media, from North Korea (DPRK). A central component is a group of new works from the Mansudae Art Studio in Pyongyang. These works, including loans from a key private collection, will be seen in Australia for the first time. Three exceptional filmmakers — Ang Lee, Takeshi Kitano and Rithy Panh — are profiled as APT6 artists with retrospective seasons during the exhibition. The Australian Cinémathèque also presents two cinema projects, Promised Lands and The Cypress and the Crow: 50 years of Iranian Animation, presenting contemporary cinema reaching from the Indian subcontinent to West Asia and the Middle East. The APT has, since its inception, played a leading role in the development of the Gallery’s contemporary Asian and Pacific collections. The value of this was demonstrated earlier this Zhu Weibing China b.1971 Ji Wenyu China b.1959 People holding flowers (detail) 2007 Synthetic polymer paint on resin; velour, steel wire, dacron, lodestone and cotton / 400 pieces: 100 x 18 x 8cm (each) / Installed dimensions variable / The Kenneth and Yasuko Myer Collection of Contemporary Asian Art. Purchased 2008 with funds from Michael Simcha Baevski through the Queensland Art Gallery Foundation / Collection: Queensland Art Gallery