The Sixth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

26 The curatorial structure of the inaugural APT laid the groundwork for subsequent events. It eschewed the auteur in favour of a multitude of voices, initially because it was a pragmatic way of both engaging and reflecting the diverse cultures of the region. The structure was built around Queensland Art Gallery staff working with curatorial partners in different countries. As Gallery expertise grew, this model evolved into an internal Gallery curatorial team seeking advice from curatorial colleagues and artists abroad and at home. In these two unique ways — regional specificity and no single directorial voice — the APT differs from other biennales and triennials. Importantly, it also provides opportunities for artists from the region to have external critical perspectives brought to their work. The APT advocates for decentralised positions, and was one of the first in this part of the world to concentrate and frame its ‘looking’ via this geography. Why is this important? It is an assertion that the work of artists from Asia and the Pacific be presented in a regional context within the international framework of the triennial. This productive focus offers significant perspectives generated by privileging location. As independent curator and publisher Sharmini Pereira notes: Even if an ambition to foster a world art history guided early APTs, its subsequent incarnations have highlighted the impossibility of such an enterprise. Defining itself in relation to Asia and the Pacific, the APT is, by choice, not geared to encompass a world art history. Through its exclusive regional focus, it has not only made a phenomenal contribution to cultural debates internationally but has provided rumination on problems of canons and linear narratives. 4 With every APT the definition of the region is tested. APT6 includes the work of artists from Iran and Turkey for the first time, with the major thematic cinema program Promised Lands exploring the rich cultures of the Indian subcontinent through to West Asia and the Middle East. Looking to the immediate west was first mooted by a number of Indian and Pakistani artist and curator colleagues who, when talking about their own practices, would often frame discussion around Tracey Moffatt Australia/United States b.1960 Gary Hillberg Australia b.1952 OTHER (stills) 2009 DVD transferred to Digital Betacam, single channel projection, continuous loop, colour, sound, 7:00 minutes, ed. 1/150 / Courtesy: The artists