The Eighth Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art

of a program of performance to occur across the exhibition’s five-month season through APT Live. Central to the APT is the time spent on the ground, mapping the undulating texture of the region. This investment in first-hand research, largely made possible through the support of the Australia Council for the Arts, informs and ultimately shapes the exhibition. Travelling to Cambodia, Thailand and Myanmar (formerly Burma) as part of this fieldwork, I was constantly reminded of the standing the APT now enjoys, including its reputation for hosting participating artists. Every country in the region has faced some measure of tumult in the last few decades, be it political, social or environmental, yet the Triennial continues to be seen as an increasingly relevant, dynamic and open space in which artists and artworks can productively converge. Our curatorial team returned to China where we looked beyond traditional art centres. We visited Mongolia for the first time, while Triennial-mainstay South Korea is represented by major commissions. India is present with a project of indigenous Indian artists who have not always been included in its broader visual art discourse. We see work that is the result of a rising generation of young artists in Cambodia, emboldening freedoms in Myanmar, and in Japan, a continuing response to the 2011 Fukushima disaster. We made our first visit to Nepal, and are conscious of the devastating effects of this year’s earthquake. West and Central Asia too have had a growing presence since APT6, bringing with them a new set of complicated parameters negotiated by artists from former Soviet states. Performance is particularly key to the Pacific dimension of the exhibition, with a deeply community-rooted multi-artist project growing out of an artist camp staged in Vanuatu last year. This APT again brings cinema into the discussion of visual culture, with focuses on independent filmmakers in the Philippines and the broad experiences of contemporary Islam. Our Children’s Art Centre also remains central — giving audiences local, hands-on experiences that provoke a sense of inquiry about the people and places of the region. The power of promoting visual literacy is distilled in these projects specially developed for young audiences, and what we have learned from them since 1999 continues to add to this Triennial. For over two decades, the APT has enduringly located Australian Indigenous and non-Indigenous art in the context of the Asia Pacific, never more so than in APT8, where the number of Australian artists is the largest ever. Australia’s engagement with the region has expanded beyond recognition since the early 1990s, when to declare that our future lay in the region — as then Prime Minister Paul Keating did —was deemed difficult enough. The Triennial has been successful at many levels, but arguably its greatest success lies in its contribution to making that future visible through the work of contemporary art and artists. Just as art defines the APT, so the Triennial continues to shape its home base — the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art. As a museum-wide endeavour, it compels collaborative best practice. The demands of major installations hone our collective problem-solving acumen, and the logistical effort of having as many artists and performers as possible here with us in Brisbane is one of the most rewarding challenges we face. The Queensland Government, through the Premier and Minister for the Arts, The Honourable Annastacia Palaszczuk, is the unfailing Founding Supporter of APT, and we welcome Audi Australia as the Principal Sponsor for APT8. Our Principal Partners are Tourism and Events Queensland and the Australian Government through the Australia Council for the Arts, its arts funding and advisory body, and the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy. The Australia Council is again supporting the APT International Visitors Program. The Gallery extends its thanks to supporters including the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Ishibashi Foundation, Creative New Zealand, our Airline Partners, and Tourism and Media Partners. The Tim Fairfax Family Foundation has provided incomparable support to the APT8 Kids program, publication and touring program. The APT has also led to the establishment of the Asia Pacific Council, a membership and networking group that aims to reinforce the long-term sustainability and development of the Triennial as an ongoing series. The Gallery is deeply grateful to those organisations who have been so ready to embrace the establishment of the Council. The entirety of the Gallery has poured its creativity and dedication into this ambitious project. APT8 has been curated by a QAGOMA team who have travelled extensively throughout the region, consulting with artists and a broad network of advisors and colleagues. They are tirelessly led by Maud Page, QAGOMA’s Deputy Director of Collection and Exhibitions. Former Curatorial Manager of Asian and Pacific Art, Russell Storer, laid the foundation for APT8 in work now continued with gusto by his successor Aaron Seeto. The entire journey has been underpinned by 14—15 FOREWORD