YOKOHAMATRIENNALE
2011
KICK-OFFMEETINGREPORT
ヨコ ハマトリエンナ ー レ 2 0 11
キックオフミ ー テ ィング
記録集

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キックオフ・ミーティング 開催概要

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ルイス・ビクス基調講演 「リバプール・バイエニアルの挑戦」

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パネル・ディスカッション「横浜トリエンナーレが目指すもの」

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登壇者プロフィール

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来場者アンケート

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YOKOHAMA TRIENNALE 2011 KICK-OFF MEETING OUTLINE

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KEYNOTE SPEECH BY LEWIS BIGGS “Vision, Challenge, Context – Liverpool Biennial”

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PANEL DISCUSSION “Yokohama Triennale – Its Past and Future”

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PANELIST PROFILE054

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK

ABOUT THE YOKOHAMA TRIENNALE KICK-OFF MEETING
We have seen a growth in the number of international exhibition of contemporary art in forms of biennales andtriennales in the recent years, and according to the 2006 data by Asian Art Archive (www.aaa.org.hk), there areover 60 such exhibitions in the world today. If we were to count those exhibitions that are media-specific, such as
printmaking and photography, the number would be as many as 200, although their scale varies from small tolarge.
The Yokohama Triennale, under the flagship of the Japan Foundation, held its grand opening in 2001, signifying
the launch of an urban-based contemporary art festival with quality and scale of international standing in Japan.
Ten years have passed, and the fourth edition to open in 2011 will designate the museum as one of the main
venues and seek transition in marking its milestone.
The demand for international exhibitions has shifted from Euro-American countries to the Asian region in thelast decade, bringing changes to the environment surrounding Yokohama Triennale. Whilst, in Japan, a number of
exhibitions that call themselves biennales and triennales have been organized, many of them have faceddifficulties in maintaining their original vision and ideas and continuing their activities over a long term.
Understanding these changes, a kick-off meeting was held on October 2 and October 3, 2010, as a preliminary
survey of the fourth edition of Yokohama Triennale. This report is documentation of the event, which consisted of a
keynote speech and a panel discussion that discussed the general theme “Yokohama Triennale – Its Past andFuture” Starting with an introduction of Liverpool Biennial as a reference model of a recurring exhibition that has
sought collaboration with local partners and communities ever since its inception in 1999, the artistic directors
from the last three editions of the Yokohama Triennale joined in as panelists to discuss the significance ofinternational exhibitions today, and the role that Yokohama Triennale would play locally and internationally.

［Time Table ］

15:00-15:05

Greeting

15:05-15:45

KEYNOTE SPEECH “Vision, Challenge, Context -- Liverpool Biennial”
Lewis Biggs (CEO and Artistic Director of Liverpool Biennial)

15:45-16:00

Break

16:00-17:30

PANEL DISCUSSION “Yokohama Triennale -- Its Past and Future”［Panelist ］

Artistic Director of Yokohama Triennale 2001: Nanjo Fumio (Director of Mori Art Museum)
Artistic Director of Yokohama Triennale 2005: Kawamata Tadashi (Artist)
Artistic Director of Yokohama Triennale 2008: Mizusawa Tsutomu (Chief Curator, The Museum of Modern Art,
Kamakura & Hayama)
Artistic Director of Yokohama Triennale 2011: Miki Akiko
Lewis Biggs (CEO and Artistic Director of Liverpool Biennial)［Chief ］

General Director of Yokohama Triennale 2011: Osaka Eriko (Director of Yokohama Art Museum)
Venue : Yokohama Creativecity Center (YCC)
Organizer : Organizing Committee for Yokohama Triennale
Special Cooperation : Kitanaka School, BankART1929, Koganecho Area Managiment Center,

Yokohama Arts Foundation.
1) Affiliation and positions of speaker and panelists are as of October 2, 2010.
2) Japanese names are spelled in the order of family name, given name.

032｜YOKOHAMA TRIENNALE 2011 KICK-OFF MEETING OUTLINE

KEYNOTE SPEECH BY LEWIS BIGGS(CEO and Artistic Director of Liverpool Biennial)

Vision, Challenge, Context—Liverpool Biennial
Osaka Eriko ｜Thank you for joining us today. My name is Osaka Eriko, and I’m the director of

Yokohama Museum of Art. I have been appointed the Director General for Yokohama Triennale

2011, scheduled to be held next year. We just held our press conference yesterday to announce our

event to open in August 2011. Following the conference, we are holding this “kick-off meeting”
today and tomorrow, to discuss with you all about Yokohama Triennale and the environment andcontext in which this event is placed. Yokohama Triennale has been held for three times, in 2001,
2005, and 2008, and today, we have the presence of the directors of these past editions. We havealso our artistic director for 2011 here to join us in our discussion today.

We will start by a keynote speech by the artistic director of Liverpool Biennial, Mr. Lewis

Biggs. He is with us today despite his very tight schedule. Mr. Biggs has worked at Tate Liverpool

as curator and also director, but he is now the CEO and the Artistic Director of the Liverpool
Biennial. In his long career, he has also worked as an officer of the British Council and has
experiences in curating public art in the UK.

I would like to welcome him now to speak about his experiences, which I’m sure will be fullof insights and inspiration.

Lewis Biggs ｜Thank you for that introduction. I’m very happy to be here, back in Yokohama formy second visit because my first visit was in 2005 to see the Yokohama Triennale. Apart from a
big thank you for inviting me, I want to start by saying how different every biennial is, and how

all of these recurring exhibitions are extremely different from each other. And I think it’s in thesedifferences rather than the similarities that the real interests rise. There is a problem immediately

with the terminology, “biennial,” because a biennial means “exhibition” to some people while itmeans “festival” to other people. And between these two big polarities, there are many different
meanings that people understand the word to have in between.

I want to introduce the Liverpool Biennial as the UK’s biggest visual arts festival. And this givesa third meaning to the “biennial.” In our case, this term refers to the company, or an autonomous,
non-profit organization called “Liverpool Biennial”.

I’m going to try to answer four questions: What does Liverpool Biennial do? Why does Liverpool
Biennial exist or do what it does? Who is it for? And how does it do what it does?

I just want to also say that I’m a missionary for (my own kind of ) biennial. I’ve been lucky enoughto follow my interests all my life, rather than have a career. But I did work in museums for nearly

15 years and, latterly, I felt that I wanted to work outside museums because I was more interested
in art in a social context rather than art in context of the history of art.
Osaka Eriko ｜ General Director of

Yokohama Triennale 2011

So, our slogan at Liverpool Biennial is “engaging art, people and place”. The implication of thisis that we have to be experts not only in art, but also in the people who are looking at the art,
KEYNOTE SPEECH BY LEWIS BIGGS “Vision, Challenge, Context – Liverpool Biennial”｜033

and also experts in the place or context where the art is shown. These three things are equallyimportant.

So, what do we do?

Liverpool Biennial as a company is an art commissioning agency which operates all the time.

*01 ｜ A foundation
http://www.afoundation.org.uk/*02 ｜ The Bluecoat Art Centre
http://www.thebluecoat.org.uk/*03 ｜ The FACT Centre
http://www.fact.co.uk/

Every two years we commission a lot of art works and present these as an exhibition.

*04 ｜ The Open Eye Gallery
http://www.openeyegallery.co.uk/

For example, we have commissioned Jorge Pardo (1963-), Antony Gormley (1950-), Richard*05 ｜ TATE Liverpool
http://www.tate.org.uk/liverpool/

Wilson (1953-), Atelier Bow-Wow (Tsukamoto Yoshiharu, 1965-, Kaijima Momoyo, 1969-), and

GROSS. MAX. With Jaume Plensa (1955-), we commissioned this sculpture, called Dream. It’son the site of a former coal mine. The miners, who are now no longer miners because the mine
had been shut, worked with the artist in conceiving and delivering the work. So, that’s the kind

*06 ｜ John Moores Painting Prize
http://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/
walker/johnmoores/of activity we do all the time.

*07 ｜ New Contemporaries
http://www.newcontemporaries.org.
uk/

Then every two years we present a major exhibition. We call this exhibition the “international*08 ｜ No Longer Empty
http://nolongerempty.com/

visual arts organizations in the city: A foundation*01, The Bluecoat Art Centre*02, The FACT

*09 ｜ The Art Organisation
http://www.theartorganisation.co.uk/

exhibition,” although most people just call it “the biennial.” We collaborate with the five otherCentre*03, The Open Eye Gallery*04, and Tate Liverpool*05. Each of these organizations has its

own particular specialty, like photography or film, and so each of the curators from these*10 ｜ The Cooperative
http://www.thecooperative.info/

organizations takes their own approach to the theme of the exhibition, both from the concept andfrom the medium. In other words, the art is curated in six different ways, including us.

As you can see, it’s a small exhibition compared to some other international exhibitions; we had

70 participating artists in 2010. The largest number of commissions is made by my organization,
Liverpool Biennial. This is because we take the city as our gallery, which is obviously a bigger
space than any of the galleries involved.

The third thing we do as an organization is to promote and co-ordinate the Liverpool Biennial

Festival every two years. There are six official platforms in the Festival. The Fringe or Independents
section is actually larger than all the official platforms put together.

What are the six platforms? First, the International Exhibition (or ‘the Biennial’). Second, City
States is the platform within which we invite cities from around the world to make their own
exhibitions (at no cost to Liverpool). In this way , City States is our equivalent to the national

pavilions at Venice Biennale. These two platforms are for artists who don’t come from United
Kingdom. Then, platforms three and four are competitions open only to artists working in the

UK: the John Moores Painting Prize*06 and Bloomberg New Contemporaries*07. Finally, platforms

five and six represent artists that are both ‘global’ and local together: local artists inviting their friends
from other countries (No Longer Empty*08/ The Art Organisation*09/ The Cooperative*10).
Now, why do we exist? Why do we what we do?

The short answer is that the Biennial was founded in order “to make Liverpool a better place forartists to live and work.” The first biennial event was funded by an artist from Liverpool, who

happens also to be wealthy. After having made a success of one biennial, it was then possible topersuade the city authorities and other public funders to put money into succeeding biennials.

But another way to say this is that the Biennial is there in order to inspire people and get themto talk to each other. I have been asked why it is Liverpool that hosts the UK’s Biennial, when
034｜KEYNOTE SPEECH BY LEWIS BIGGS “Vision, Challenge, Context – Liverpool Biennial”

Lewis Biggs ｜ CEO and Artistic

Director of Liverpool Biennial*11 ｜ Edinburgh International Festival
Edinburgh, UK
http://www.eif.co.uk/*12 ｜ Frieze Art Fair
London, UK
http://www.friezeartfair.com/*13 ｜ Bradford Print Biennale
Bradford, UK*14 ｜ London Biennial
London, UK
http://www.londonbiennale.org/*15 ｜ Glasgow International Festivalof Visual Art
Glasgow, UK
http://www.glasgowinternational.org/*16 ｜ Folkestone Triennial
Folkstone, UK
http://folkestonetriennial.org.uk/）*17 ｜ São Paulo Biennale
São Paulo, Brazil
http://www.fbsp.org.br/*18 ｜ Biennale of Sydney
Sydney, Australia
http://www.biennaleofsydney.com.au/*19 ｜ Whitney Biennial
NY, USA
http://whitney.org/biennial*20 ｜ ISEAInter-Society for the Electronic Arts
http://www.isea-web.org/*21 ｜ Manifesta
http://manifesta.org/*22 ｜ Sculpture Projects Muenster
Muenster, Germany
http://www.skulptur-projekte.de/*23 ｜ Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale
Niigata, Japan
http://www.echigo-tsumari.jp/*24 ｜ Art Santa Fe
Santa Fe, USA
http://www.artsantafe.com/

other cities might have hosted the largest and most important biennial in the country. For example,
Edinburgh Festival*11 is mainly a performing arts festival; Frieze Art Fair*12 is very big but it’s an
art fair; Bradford Print Biennial*13 doesn’t exist any more; Whitby Biennial is tiny and it’s for the‘live’ art only; London Biennial*14 only exists on the web; Glasgow International*15 is big andgrowing but as yet it doesn’t have the scale or interest of Liverpool; Folkestone Triennial*16 has
opened only once so far.

The most important reason is the fact that the biennial in Liverpool has a much longer history

than it seems. The John Moores Painting Prize, the painting biennial, was founded in Liverpool
50 years ago, so the audience for contemporary art has been nurtured in Liverpool for 50 years

already. Liverpool has been blessed with many strong visual arts institutions which needed more

visibility than they were actually getting. So, the idea of the biennial was to nourish and help thegrowth of these institutions that were already there. I think this is very important as a model forsustainability, because there are many, many biennials and triennials around the world which don’t
survive, as they have been implanted by ‘higher authority’.

Creativity and culture are a long term business and they take place over generations, rather

than over political, electoral periods. Many cultural institutions in Liverpool have been foundedover the last 100 years. Some of those are still surviving but all of them have contributed to theenvironment in which it is possible to create a sustainable biennial.
Why does Liverpool biennial exist?

So, the most important question is “Why does Liverpool Biennial exist?” For that matter, why
does any biennial or triennial exist?

In England, we say, “If you want to know what is happening, follow the money.” I would like topresent very broad categorizations of recurrent international art events by understanding who pays
for them.

The most common format for recurrent international art events is that they are founded by people

who want to collect; that may be museums, or collectors who want to collect. São Paulo Biennale*17
and the Biennale of Sydney*18 are examples of long running biennials which have survived by the

support of Trusts and Foundations that have been founded by collectors. Whitney Biennial*19, forinstance, is a longstanding biennial because artwork shown in the biennial is also acquired by The
Whitney Museum of American Art for their collection.

The second main reason for founding a biennial is academic or research-based. Some of these are

specific to promoting and studying one artform, like ISEA*20; or they may aim to ‘correct’ historicalor regional perspectives, like Manifesta*21, which was founded to promote the art of the former‘Eastern Bloc’ countries. ISEA is funded by the hosting universities; Manifesta is funded partly
by the Manifesta Foundation but mainly by its hosting city.

My third category is those that aim to create cultural tourism, such as the biennials in Venice,
Shanghai, Lyon, Busan, and Porto Alegre in Brazil. These are exhibitions that attract cultural
tourism in the spirit of the great exhibitions of the 19th century.

My fourth and final category is biennials and triennials which commission new work because
commissioning work is the best way to get artists and communities to talk to each other. Examples
here are Muenster Sculpture Project*22, Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial*23, or SITE Santa Fe*24.

Liverpool Biennial falls somewhere between the last two categories. On the one hand, it’s for
KEYNOTE SPEECH BY LEWIS BIGGS “Vision, Challenge, Context – Liverpool Biennial”｜035cultural tourism, and on the other, it also engages with the people of Liverpool.
So, another way of saying “follow the money” is to say, “Who is it for?”

From my time working in museums, I came to the conclusion that whatever you put in a museum
is always seen in the context of the history of art. Whereas, if you make an exhibition outside thecontext of the museum, it’s possible for the visitors to be in a dialogue with the city, before or at
the same time as, they have a dialogue with the art.

If you want more people to be in a dialogue with the arts, it’s a good idea to put it in thestreets. A dialogue with the city through art is more possible, more attractive for more people,
than a dialogue with art history. And, of course, whatever you put, whatever art is, it will always
be taken into the history of art, even if it isn’t produced by museums. So, if it’s paid for by the

citizens, it’ll be one kind of art, and if it’s paid for by collectors, it’ll be another kind of art: thecontext in which it is seen will be changed.

How does Liverpool Biennial do what it does?

The slogan, “engaging art, people and place,” starts with partnership with other organizations.
Because we have no space of our own, we have to start by asking other people whether we canuse their space. That is already a negotiation and a partnership.

Secondly, we try always to work at an ‘intersection of the international and the local’. That tends

to mean inviting artists from anywhere in the world to talk to communities within Liverpool.
(Cultural difference has a huge impact on the way people understand the world).

As the third principal, we try to develop the city’s visual arts ecology. This means, not only are wechallenging the other arts organizations to do things which they don’t usually do, but we challenge,
for example, universities to put on conferences, we grow volunteers into art professionals, wearrange residences for artists from other countries to come to Liverpool, and we send our artists
from Liverpool to other countries.

So, “engagement with people and social issues”. What are the ways in which we try to engage
people?

“Partnership” is the first way. I already mentioned the way in which we need to work with otherorganisations or other agencies for space.

“Commissioning” is another way. The principle behind our commissioning is to ensure that theinternational intersects with the local.

The business of “production,” particularly involving people who are not within the art world, createsa new audience for that art work. The meaning of that art work is going to come out of the dialogue
between the artist and the people doing the production.

For “discourse,” we spend a lot of time importing intellectuals, and we try to make sure we haveenough words around for people to read.

Another reason we like to work in “public” urban space is because public space is always contested.
You start to work with public space and, immediately, you find yourself in the middle somebody
else’s conversations. It gives immediate access to issues and also makes you an actor within those
036｜KEYNOTE SPEECH BY LEWIS BIGGS “Vision, Challenge, Context – Liverpool Biennial”

issues.
So, my conclusion. My presentation title was “Vision, Challenge, Context —Liverpool Biennial”.
I hope the title said enough to show our vision is to try to create a better quality of life for the
citizen of Liverpool through art. The challenge is to integrate art with everyday life, and the context
is to think global but act local.

Thank you very much for listening and if you want to see more about what we’ve done, you canfind an archive of past commissions at ‘liverpoolbiennial.adatabase.org’, and current program andactivities you can find at ‘www.biennial.com.’ Thank you very much.

KEYNOTE SPEECH BY LEWIS BIGGS “Vision, Challenge, Context – Liverpool Biennial”｜037

PANEL DISCUSSION

Yokohama Triennale—Its Past and Future
Osaka Eriko ｜Ladies and gentlemen, it is my pleasure to open part two of our symposium. Our

subject today will be “Yokohama Triennale – Its Past and Future”, a topic of greatest interest for

all of us. As this event functions at once as a kick-off meeting, we have invited the successive
directors of all previous editions of the Triennale. Let me first introduce our panelists briefly.

On your right is Mr. Nanjo Fumio. He is with us today as a representative of the four artistic
directors of the first edition (Kohmoto Shinji, Tatehata Akira, Nakamura Nobuo and Nanjo

Fumio). Mr. Nanjo has been involved in numerous international art exhibitions, and his name isincluded next to the likes of the now legendary Harald Szeemann (1933-2005) and Hans Ulrich

Obrist (1968-), one of the curators of the third Yokohama Triennale, in a list of internationallyexperienced critics and curators on the Asia Art Archive website*01. He is presently the directorof the Mori Art Museum*02. Next to him is Mr. Kawamata Tadashi, artistic director of the second
Triennale. As you will know, Mr. Kawamata is active as an artist himself in Japan and abroad, andat the young age of 28, he was the first ever Japanese artist to represent Japan at the Venice
Biennale*03. In addition, I believe that there aren’t many other practicing artists who are nominatedgeneral director of a large-scale international art show such as the Yokohama Triennale. Next to
Mr. Kawamata is Mr. Mizusawa Tsutomu, artistic director of the third Yokohama Triennale, andat present deputy director of the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama*04. As you know,
the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura & Hayama was the first public museum of modern art

in Japan when it opened back in 1951. After working there as a curator for over thirty years, Mr.
Mizusawa assumed his current position as the museum’s deputy director. Mr. Lewis Biggs, I

introduced earlier today. Right next to me is Ms. Miki Akiko. Ms. Miki was officially announced
as artistic director of the Yokohama Triennale 2011 at yesterday’s press conference. I feel a bit
reluctant to say this in front of the previous directors, and I’m not speaking from a feministic
position, but for the 2011 event, I will be working hard with my female team.

Now I would like to ask each of the previous directors to share their views on the various aspectsof the Yokohama Triennale. Let me begin with Mr. Nanjo. What is your personal impression of
the Triennale?

2001: The Beginning in Yokohama, Not in Tokyo
Nanjo Fumio ｜Rather than sharing my impression of the event, I’d like to explain first the very

outset and how it all started. Shortly before the first Yokohama Triennale was staged in 2001, I

had published a book titled Bijutsu kara toshi e (“From art to the city”; Kajima Institute Publishing),
in which I pointed out that there weren’t any art biennials or triennials yet in Japan, and expressed

the earnest wish to realize such an event. I think it was around the year 2000 that the JapanFoundation convened some sort of commission with the aim to organize a biennial or triennial
international art show, which means that an explicit intention of doing something like that had
already existed on the side of the Japan Foundation. Present Upper House member Nakayama
038｜PANEL DISCUSSION “Yokohama Triennale – Its Past and Future”*01 ｜ Asia Art Archive
http://www.aaa.org.hk/*02 ｜ Mori Art Museum
Minato, Tokyo, Japan
http://www.mori.art.museum/*03 ｜ Venice Biennale
Venice, Italy
http://www.labiennale.org/*04 ｜ The Museum of Modern Art,
Kamakura & Hayama
Kamakura, Kanagawa, Japan
http://www.moma.pref.kanagawa.jp/

Kyoko was an executive board member of the Japan Foundation at the time, and she created abudget for said commission that eventually comprised Inoue Takakuni, members of the JapanFoundation, Tatehata Akira, Yaguchi Kunio (at the time director at the Museum of Contemporary

Art Tokyo), and myself. Initially our efforts were based on the premise that such kind of event
would have to be staged in Tokyo, but as we’re talking about the time when Aoshima Yukio was

the Governor of Tokyo, we didn’t believe that something like that would be feasible at all.
Incidentally, I had been involved in a string of events in Yokohama a little earlier, including a

Barcelona-themed exhibition and a public art project. When talking to officials I knew at the
Yokohama City government, they expressed great interest in my idea, so the next time I went toYokohama I brought along people from the Japan Foundation. We met the respective heads ofthree different Yokohama City agencies, and they encouraged us to go ahead with the plan. As it
Nanjo Fumio ｜ Director of Mori Art

Museumturned out though, the city mayor was less-than-enthusiastic, so what followed was a really hard
time. “If you want to do something good, it’s going to cost a lot of money,” is one of the remarksthat are still reverberating particularly clearly in my mind. For us curators, organizing a quality
event didn’t necessarily have to involve spending large amounts of money, because you can stage
a good exhibition even with small works by newcomer artists for example. However the mayor

was apparently still regretting all the money that was spent on the then-recent Van Gogh showat the Yokohama Museum of Art, so according to his logic, a great exhibition meant great expenses.
I remember being quite staggered by his comment.

The general theme of the first edition in 2001 was “Mega Wave – Toward a New Synthesis”.

This doesn’t seem to say much about the contents, but the curators had arrived at the conclusionthat it would stoke up certain expectations. It was my assistant Roger McDonald, who initiallycame up with this theme. Mr. Tatehata, the present director of The National Museum of Art,
Osaka; Kohmoto Shinji from The National Museum of Modern Art, Kyoto; Nakamura Nobuo

from CCA Kitakyushu, and finally myself, were the four directors of the first Triennale. We didn’t

really need four directors, but the people at The Japan Foundation were obviously afraid that theywould come to nothing with any smaller number of directors. The next questionable point wasthen how the four of us would have to approach their work. Each of them had a different set ofexperiences, arguments and ideas about ways of putting together an international art show, soreconciling all those different aspects turned out extremely tricky. Mr. Tatehata and I were holding

the opinion that the four of us should work together to organize one single show, but in the end,
the exhibition came together with artists that each of us was caring for going in and out. Mr.
Nakamura, however, marked his own territory, while the Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse waschosen as a venue for Mr. Kohmoto. It was everyone’s desire to use the Red Brick Warehouse – at

the time an abandoned building – for a contemporary art event that led us to choosing Yokohama
in the first place. Using the Red Brick Warehouse would allow us to juxtapose old and new in an

utterly exciting, wabi-sabi kind of combination of cutting-edge art and old industrial architecture.
Along with the fact that this venue would make for a powerful icon to represent the Yokohama

Triennale, these ideas were all part of our media and PR strategy. We knew from our experiencethat exhibiting contemporary art in old warehouses or other disused buildings was simply more
［Facts and Data of First Edition］
Theme: Mega Wave —Towards a
New Synthesis
Dates: Sept 2 - Nov 11 , 2001 (71days) *4 closing days
Main Venues:Pacifico Yokohama
Exhibition Hall, Red Brick Warehouse
No.1
Artistic Directors:Kohmoto Shinji,
Tatehata Akira, Nakamura Nobuo,
Nanjo Fumio
No. of Artists: 109
Total Budget: Approx. 700M JPY
Total No. of Visitors: 350 Thousand

interesting. I had in fact introduced some of the museums that were opening in refurbished oldwarehouses in other countries around that time, so I was particularly keen on trying somethingsimilar at the Red Brick Warehouse. It is no longer the Yokohama Triennale’s central venue
though, as it has turned into a performance space with a somewhat semi-commercial feel. It’s anextremely disappointing development, considering that the four of us were hoping that the Red
Brick Warehouse would continue to serve as a neutral, flexible venue for all types of events.

When we launched the Triennale, some experts from overseas asked me why we were starting

yet another one when there were more than enough biennials and triennials around. My opinion

on this remains unchanged to this day. The comment represents the views of internationallyexperienced specialists, but from the standpoint of local citizens and the Japanese general public
PANEL DISCUSSION “Yokohama Triennale – Its Past and Future”｜039

at large, things are certainly different. For example, if you go and ask how many people in Japan

have visited the Venice Biennale, I’m sure you get a pretty small number. That’s why launching aninternational art show is an opportunity to introduce the citizens of the respective city or country

to the amazing world of art, and at once show them that people in other parts of the world havebeen enjoying these kinds of events for more than a hundred years already.

Mr. Biggs mentioned the question whether it is a festival or an exhibition, whereas I thinkthat biennials and triennials are expected to offer a “spectacular” kind of atmosphere. It’s especiallythis notion that encourages people to go and see contemporary art for the first time in their lives,
so in other words, this type of event holds the potential of a strong hook that connects people
with the realm of art. Visitors to the first Yokohama Triennale weren’t all young people, and I
remember spotting senior couples walking around the venues with backpacks and sneakers. Suchthings just reinforced my belief that a festival format helps attract the interest of people otherthan the usual art crowd. The market and the audience of contemporary art are not limited toyoung people alone, as there are a lot of active and curious senior citizens in the increasingly aging

Japanese society. Ever since the start of the Yokohama Triennale, I’ve been thinking it elemental
to appeal to those people and open some doors for them.

In addition to Yokohama I was also involved in the Singapore Biennale*05, Taipei Biennial*06,

and other art biennials in Asian countries. In cases where the respective event was the first large-

scale exhibition of contemporary art in that country, we were extremely careful to make sure we

included a certain percentage of things to enjoy without actually understanding them; things thatare entertaining even without explanation; things one can not only see but feel with the whole

body; and things that arouse one’s curiosity. The idea is that such measures help increase thenumber of people who come to see the show and eventually get into the art world. I am professing

during my work for the Mori Art Museum that educational, marketing and PR work – activities

aimed to attract more visitors – may seem to be three different types of activities, but the basic

spirit behind them is the same. It all comes down to diligently explaining the appeal of contemporary
art to those who are completely unfamiliar with it, and ultimately winning them over and adding
them to the pool of art fans. An international art show is in my view a significant catalyst behindsuch efforts provide the same sincere explanation for all, so that anybody can understandI found Lewis Biggs’s talk about the connection between art and life highly inspiring. The

Mori Art Museum has in fact been using “art and life” as a slogan for its operations right fromthe beginning, as exploring ways of enjoying or introducing art into everyday life was supposedly
one of its central missions. There is no biennial or triennial in Tokyo, but we’re doing an event
called Roppongi Art Night*07 for that matter. It’s a huge spectacle in which we are taking art out

into the streets – a type of event that surely helps narrow the gap between art and people’s daily

routine. The late Oshima Seiji (1924-2006), formerly the director of Setagaya Art Museum, once

made an intriguing remark. “If the purpose of art is to penetrate people’s lives, then artworks would
have to be displayed in public places or private homes only in order to live up to that ideal. This
would at once mean that we wouldn’t need museums anymore, which is why museums would
become extinct the moment art accomplishes its mission.” His words are extremely rhetorical, but
in my view it’s a truly intriguing point of view.

2005: Collaborating and Sharing a Process with the Local Community
Osaka ｜Mr. Kawamata, you were assigned on very short notice after the initially appointed

director stepped down, leaving you only a short preparation period for the second Triennale. Can
you tell us a little more about the circumstances?

Kawamata Tadashi ｜I suppose everyone here is familiar with the hows and whys of the situation,

so I think it’s not necessary to explain that in detail. Well it was something that hit me out of

040｜PANEL DISCUSSION “Yokohama Triennale – Its Past and Future”*05 ｜ Singapore Biennale
Singapore
http://www.singaporebiennale.org/*06 ｜ Taipei Biennial
Taipei, Taiwan
http://www.taipeibiennial.org/*07 ｜ Roppongi Art Night
Minato, Tokyo, Japan
http://www.roppongiartnight.com/

*08 ｜ The Yamashita Pier No. 3 andNo. 4 Warehouses

nowhere. But from my experience as an artist who had participated in biennials and triennials

before, to some degree I had my own idea as to what an international art show should be like,and sticking to that I felt was the only thing I could do when I started working on the Triennale.
My main interest was in the visitors. I was interested in the way an exhibition attracts people, andhow it creates a relationship to the people that eventually go to see it and move around at thevenue. The borded warehouses*08 had already been chosen as venues, and as that meant we weregoing to exhibit art at a place where dutiable goods are stored before passing Japanese customs,
in a certain sense I found it a very interesting choice. It was extremely difficult schedule-wise, andit took me quite some time to figure out how to present art to people in the somewhat inconclusive
sort of atmosphere that characterizes these warehouses. As for the general theme, on the other

hand, I decided on rather quickly. The relationship between visitor and location that is unique tothe respective place – in this case, something that can only emerge in the particular environmentof Yokohama in a broader sense – has always played a central role in my philosophy, so it was

clear that this would be the base of my concept. Another thought was that the first “visitors” would

be the volunteers and other so-called supporters that were going be involved in the event fromthe very beginning, so I was also thinking about how to establish relationships with those people.
The response from the general public was particularly interesting at the time, as people offered
their help as soon as they heard I was appointed director. That was immensely motivating, and it

gave birth to the idea – although very vague – of making the Triennale through collaboration withthe local people. We couldn’t start right away of course because we had to set up all the parts ofthat collaborative machinery, but in the end we did manage to create artworks, and share the timeand place with supporters and volunteers.

From the viewpoint of an artist, an exhibition basically ends with its opening. Artworks are

installed and stay where they are until the exhibition closes, so most artists disappear once
everything is in place. For an artist, an exhibition opening just means unveiling his work attendinga reception party, and then going home. The fun part is actually what happens up to that point– the time when the artist is busy creating his work, and struggles with the finishing touches.
About half of the artists could come to Yokohama without a clue as to what kind of work theywant to show. This means that the preparation period actually becomes a creative period during
which artworks are being made, and I believe that this is in fact where other people should actually

be present and get involved. My desire is to create as much communicative time and space aspossible, and I would almost go as far as to say that we don’t even need the actual artworks aslong as we have enough these occasions for communication. When calling the exhibition a“moving body”, I am referring to this idea that the establishment and sharing of a communicative

platform would ultimately render artworks unnecessary. It could no longer be called an exhibition

then of course, but in any event. I wanted to create a stage for artists to spend and share time, or
exchange with the visitors by way of their displays. That’s because I’d like people who go to see

an exhibition or international art show to experience the actual creation of artworks at a closer

range, and get in touch with art and artists in a new, different way. I’ve been working all the timewith the one thought in mind; that we could put together an entire exhibition only out of such
Kawamata Tadashi ｜ Artist［Facts and Data of Second Edition］
Theme: Art Circus —Jumping fromthe Ordinary
Dates: Sept 28 - Dec 18 (82 days)
Main Venues: Yamashita Pier No.3
and No.4 Warehouses
Artistic Director: Kawamata Tadashi
Curators: Amano Taro, Serizawa
Takashi, Yamano Shingo
No. of Artists: 86
Total Budget: Approx. 900M JPY
Total No. of Visitors: 190 Thousand

scenes where art comes into existence. We didn’t have much time, but because of the tight schedulethe officials at the Yokohama city government were permissive enough to let us reactivate thatplace called ZAIM, launch the Triennale School as a platform for communication with all kindsof people, and implement a couple of satellite projects. We were able to do all these somewhat
experimental things because the city government was obviously feeling sorry for the trouble thesudden nomination caused me, even though I found it a rather exciting situation myself, simply

because it meant that nobody would probably accuse me in case the outcome wasn’t a success.
That was the biggest advantage for me, and with that security under my belt I was ready to giveit a try and put the Triennale together in just nine months.

In the end I’m considering the Triennale as something that never ends. While the event itself
PANEL DISCUSSION “Yokohama Triennale – Its Past and Future”｜041is held once every three years, artworks don’t necessarily have to be limited to the period of one

edition only, but they can as well continue. One of my first ideas was that we could as wellcommission artists to produce works not only for the 2005 edition, but also for 2008 and 2011.
In this sense, the lives of artworks don’t end with the end of an exhibition, but they continue. Now

if exhibiting the creation process is the actual artwork, there is no need for a timeframe. There are
periods of three or maybe five years between one Triennale and the next, but from the viewpointof the artist, these periods are merely stages of one process. The idea that the process itself could
perhaps be what is eventually shown at the exhibition was the very first concept I was having in

mind. As a matter of course, doing an exhibition that focuses straightforwardly on processes would
mean that there’s nothing much to see is the display. I was often told that it’s fine as long as we
manage to bridge the gap, but I believe that we came up with a bit more than a mere bridge.
2008: Exploring the History of Yokohama through Art
Osaka ｜Thank you very much. Now may I ask you, Mr. Mizusawa, to give us your comments?
Mizusawa Tsutomu ｜I was the artistic director of the third Triennale, on which I began to workin November 2006, a little less than two years before the exhibitions opened. I had about two

years time when I started, but as a matter of fact, I had handed in a proposal even before that. I
had prepared some contents to propose concrete ideas about what kind of exhibition I had inmind. I was one out of a number of people who submitted their proposals to Yokohama City and

The Japan Foundation at the time, and mine was eventually chosen. This means that I had put
together the contents even before getting to planning the actual exhibition. After looking at what
my predecessors did in 2001 and 2005 respectively, it was only natural that I try to set the third

Triennale apart from the previous two, and in retrospect, it seems to me that I was perhaps focusing

a bit too much on this particular point. Rather than thinking about continuity, I was feeling that
I had to come up with something highly individual and completely different from the previous

two Triennales if I wanted to get my proposal through. That’s what I was mostly thinking about.
People told me that the concept was too philosophical and incomprehensible, but I chose the title“TIME CREVASSE” in order to make the exhibition’s overall theme as clear as possible. As it

turned out, that entailed a lot of issues. Staging a big festive event under one specific theme isextremely difficult, but then again, that’s something I knew beforehand. Plus, I was in fact bornin Yokohama, and I think I know the city fairly well, so my idea was to make an exhibition withthe aim to discover something new in the city and its history by way of art.

The word “TIME” includes a somewhat abstract notion, but it refers at once to history andhistorical periods, reflecting my desire to make the Triennale an occasion to review the history ofMizusawa Tsutomu ｜ Chief Curator,

Yokohama through the encounter with art. Therefore I definitely wanted to use both the harbor

The Museum of Modern Art,
Kamakura & Hayama

in the outskirts of Yokohama as a by-product of the growing economy the modern port city was［Facts and Data of Third Edition］
Theme: TIME CREVASSE
Dates: Sept 13 - Nov 30 (79 days)
Main Venues: Shinko Pier
Exhibition Hall, NYK Waterfront
Warehouse(BankART Studio NYK),Red Brick Warehouse No.1, Sankeien
Garden, Osanbashi YokohamaInternational Passenger Terminal,
Landmark Plaza, Unga Park andothers
Artistic Director: Mizusawa Tsutomu
Curators: Daniel Birnbaum
Hu Fang, Miyake Akiko, Hans Ulrich
Obrist, Beatrix Ruf
No. of Artists: 72
Total Budget: Approx. 900M JPY
Total No. of Visitors: 550 Thousand

district and the Sankeien Garden. Over a period of more than a hundred years, Sankeien emerged
built upon. As one aspect of the port city in the modern age, it connects an urban space with a

non-urban area, and my intention was clearly to make an exhibition in which visitors would go

and see both kinds of places. This was another largely unpopular idea, as some people complainedthat traveling back and forth would take so much time that they can’t see all in one day. My
standard answer to everyone I met was that I’d like visitors to take three days for the tour – a little

pilgrimage discovering the location of Yokohama; a self-discovery trip for someone who was bornin the city, and for those coming there from outside, an examination of the public memory thatis the history of Yokohama. The exhibition I proposed was designed as an opportunity to do sothrough encounters with art.

What Mr. Biggs said earlier made me aware of the importance of public commissions where

something remains even after an exhibition, because I realized that otherwise one has to go
042｜PANEL DISCUSSION “Yokohama Triennale – Its Past and Future”

*09 ｜ Carnegie International
Pittsburgh, USA
http://web.cmoa.org/*10 ｜ Whitney Biennial
NY, USA
http://whitney.org/biennial*11 ｜ São Paulo Biennale
São Paulo, Brazil
http://www.fbsp.org.br/*12 ｜ Documenta
Kassel, Germany
http://www.documenta.de/through the huge effort of doing everything again from scratch each time. I’m not sure if I’m
supposed to say this, and I’m not going to elaborate on it here. Thank you.
Art Biennials and Triennials in the World
Osaka ｜Thank you very much. We have heard three different perspectives and approaches to the

Yokohama Triennale, one characteristic feature of which is the change of venues each time. Now
I would like to give you a brief overview of the Triennale’s history. There exist a large number ofart biennials and triennials in the world, and while the number you are seeing right now may not

be up to date, it represents the world’s leading international art festivals as listed on the Asia Art*13 ｜ Biennale de Paris
Paris, France
http://biennaledeparis.org/

Archive website. In the 1890s, there were only two, one of which was of course the Venice Biennale.

*14 ｜ Triennale-India
New Delhi, India

the number of international art shows suddenly climbed to 22 and 29 during the 1990s and 2000s*15 ｜ Biennale of Sydney
Sydney, Australia
http://www.biennaleofsydney.com.au/*16 ｜ Sculpture Projects Muenster
Muenster, Germany
http://www.skulptur-projekte.de/*17 ｜ Baltic Triennial
Vilnius, Lithuania
http://www.cac.lt/*18 ｜ Havana Biennial
Havana, Cuba
http://www.bienalhabana.cult.cu/
bienaldelahabana/*19 ｜ Istanbul Biennial
Istanbul, Turkey
http://www.iksv.org/bienal/english/
bienal.asp?cid=105*20 ｜ Osaka Triennale
Osaka, Japan
http://www.cwo.zaq.ne.jp/caso/lib/011006osakatriennale.htm*21 ｜ The Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale
Fukuoka, Japan
http://faam.city.fukuoka.lg.jp/FT/2009/jpn/index.html*22 ｜ Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial
Niigata, Japan
http://www.echigo-tsumari.jp/*23 ｜ Aichi Triennale
Aichi, Japan
http://aichitriennale.jp/*24 ｜ Setouchi International Art
Festival
Kagawa, Japan
http://setouchi-artfest.jp/

In the 1900s there was just one, and after the forced break during World War II, between the endof the war and the 1970s the number amounted to eight. In the 1980s there were six, after which
respectively. Especially in the Asian region, the number increased significantly between the 1990s

and 2000s. A large number of international exhibitions are also being held in Europe, among
them the Venice Biennale as the very first of its kind.

Looking at the situation before the 1970s, there was the Venice Biennale that was launchedin 1895, as well as the Carnegie International*09, the Whitney Biennial*10, and the São Paulo

Biennale*11 As most of you will probably not know, the Tokyo Biennale was first held in 1952.

Basically the very first art biennial in Asia, it was in fact an exhibition hosted by The Mainichi

Newspapers under the title “Japan International Art Exhibition”, and wasn’t renamed “Tokyo

Biennale” until the early 1960s. The 10th Tokyo Biennale, staged in 1970 under the title “Between

Man and Matter”, is now being regarded as a legendary exhibition. Nakahara Yusuke andMinemura Toshiaki, two leading critics in Japan, made it an art spectacle with great international
appeal. At the time, Venice, Carnegie, Tokyo and São Paulo were reportedly considered as thefour biggest international art events in the world. 1955 saw the inception of the Documenta*12,
followed in 1959 by the Biennale de Paris*13, and, perhaps rather surprisingly for most of you, an

art triennial in India*14 in the 1960s. Furthermore, there is the long-standing Biennale of Sydney*15,

and Sculpture Projects Muenster*16, a sculpture-focused exhibition held every ten years since 1977.

The Baltic Triennial*17 started in 1979, and in the 1980s, a biennial focusing on Asian art openedin Bangladesh. Since the 1980s, the number of art biennials gradually increased also in places otherthan the major European and American cities. Examples would be the Havana Biennial*18 and
Istanbul Biennial*19, launched in 1987. After that, the number increased explosion-like. The Asia

Art Archive offers more detailed information.

Shifting the focus on art biennials and triennials in Japan, I have to say that the aforementioned

events are the most prominent ones. There exist in fact quite a few other exhibitions in Japan thathave “Biennale” or “Triennale” in the title, including the International Biennial Exhibition of Prints
introducing works submitted from the general public. The Tokyo Biennale took place between

1952 and 1990, but it is said to have completed its mission and lost its appeal as an internationalart exhibition in 1970. As for the Osaka Triennale*20, even though numerous works were submitted

from around the world, it was discontinued after ten years. The Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale*21

started in 1999, followed in 2000 by the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial*22, and the Yokohama

Triennale in 2001. The Kyoto Biennale was held – only once – in 2003, and in 2010, the Aichi
Triennale*23 and the Setouchi International Art Festival*24 were added to the lineup. The Setouchi

event wasn’t called Biennale or Triennale, but it is very likely to continue.

Mr. Lewis Biggs pointed out earlier that the Liverpool Biennial is the biggest of its kind in

the United Kingdom, and even though Japan certainly counts among the countries with aparticularly large number of art biennials and triennials, when it comes to international recognition,
things are certainly getting difficult in some cases. Co-hosted with the Japan Foundation, the

PANEL DISCUSSION “Yokohama Triennale – Its Past and Future”｜043

Yokohama Triennale looks back on a history that defines it as a state-controlled project so to

speak. There exists a list of currently discontinued art biennials and triennials, including threeprojects in Japan. The Tokyo Biennale’s curtain fell after the 18th installment. The Osaka Biennale

was held ten times, the Kyoto Biennale only once. Although there are cases of events that werediscontinued after the initial installment also in other countries, as our topic today is the question
how such an event should continue, and how it can manage to continue in the first place. We just*25 ｜ Asia-Pacific Triennial ofContemporary Art
Brisbane, Australia
http://qag.qld.gov.au/exhibitions/apt*26 ｜ Lyon Biennale of ContemporaryArt
Lyon, France
http://www.biennale-de-lyon.org/

saw an example of one possible answer. In his speech, Mr. Biggs also pointed out four internationalart shows that introduce works created as part of the exhibition, commissioned works that remainbeyond the event period, or those that are added to the respective museum’s collection, rather than
temporary works of art. These are the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial, Liverpool Biennial, Sculpture

Projects Muenster, and the Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art*25 at the Queensland Art
Gallery in Australia. There may be others, but these are the four that have in my view achieved
the most outstanding results.

After this short summary, I’d like to return to the Yokohama Triennale and its incarnationsin 2001, “Mega Wave – Towards a New Synthesis”; “Art Circus – Jumping from the Ordinary(2005)”; “TIME CREVASSE (2008)”. Ms. Miki, you have been following the Triennale as an
outsider before getting involved yourself. What were your impressions up until now?
2011: The Next Challenge

Miki Akiko ｜Mr. Mizusawa just talked about how he tried to set his third Triennale off from theprevious two. Directing this Triennale after three established male curators is an extremely difficultand a challenging assignment. The project itself is going to be rather compact this time. I think
the seeds my predecessors have sown during their hard work on the first three Triennales are now

sprouting in various forms. I understand that we are here to discuss about sustainability andcontinuation. We often ask why and if art biennials and triennials are necessary, and whether or

not it is really important to continue them. Continuing with the effort is essential, but it seems
that the Japanese perceives time span differently from the way the rest of the world sees it. In

Japan, people tend to feel satisfied after organizing an event for about three times. As a result, theevent eventually disappears. As we have learned from the examples of the Lyon Biennale*26 andthe Liverpool Biennial, staging this type of show once or twice is not enough to come to any
conclusion. The seeds that have been sown don’t sprout that easily, so I believe that we can turnthe sprouts into splendid flowers only if we are able to approach things with a longer-term vision.
Now I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce some basic ideas for the upcoming

Triennale. In normal circumstances I should be able to announce more details at this point, but

as everything started only very recently, we haven’t yet decided on an exhibition title. However,“How much of the world can we know?” is the fundamental question that I would like to pose as

I plan my exhibition. In a nutshell, this means that even now that highly advanced science andtechnology have given us a deeper understanding of all kinds of things, to the extent that we think
we know every corner of the world, there are in fact quite a lot of things that we still don’tcomprehend. There are domains that cannot be figured out by science or reason, and the wonders–in a broad sense – the “magic” of the world. I suppose the exhibition will therefore include
everything from magical powers to supernatural phenomena, along with myths and legends suchthings give rise to, as well as elements of animism etcetera. The question as to what extent we canunderstand the world doesn’t mean that we have the desire to question the limits of science, elevate

mysticism, or pursue art as a form of entertainment. By drawing attention to those areas wherescience fails to provide an explanation, we aim to rediscover forgotten values and areas we havebeen regarding as marginal, and ultimately make the Triennale an occasion to suggest a rather
open and flexible way of engaging with the world, and indicate alternative views of history andevents. In reality, when looking at the world and pondering how much of it we can understand,
044｜PANEL DISCUSSION “Yokohama Triennale – Its Past and Future”

Miki Akiko ｜ Artistic Director of
Yokohama Triennale 2011

*27 ｜ Artranspennine98
Liverpool, UK
http://www.artranspennine.org.uk/

it turns out that it is in fact full of things we are unable to explain. While those include also a lotof things that better remain unexplained, man is by nature eager to know and simply has to go
and find out. It is also that human desire to understand that we hope to be able to highlight inthis Triennale.

I think each of the successive directors’ presented us their curatorial principles, when theyshared with us their ideas about producing an exhibition. My principle as a curator is close to how

Marcel Duchamp (1887-1968) thought about art – that art cannot exist without the viewer. I may

not be accurately following what he exactly meant to say, but I consider the formula of “artwork”,“site of exhibition” and “viewer /audience” as a golden triangle. There is a certain relationship thatemerges between these three elements, and I believe that only a perfectly matched relationshipprovides the foundation for something truly moving to be conceived. The main venues of theupcoming Triennale will be the Yokohama Museum of Art and NYK Waterfront Warehouse(BankART Studio NYK), so this issue will come up again when thinking about what we can doat the Yokohama Museum of Art, and what kinds of art could be realized at NYK Waterfront
Warehouse. In other words, we will be able to include works that can only be shown at a museum
and cannot be borrowed for display at a temporary exhibition space. In case we find pieces thatmatch the general theme among the world’s historical objects, or even in the collection of the
Yokohama Museum of Art itself, I would like to include those as well. The warehouse is also an

extremely inspiring space, so I’m hoping to ask some artists to create works that are inspired bythis unique space. I’m planning to primarily include artworks that are mysterious and interesting,as well as those that are visually communicative, over those that are intellectually challenging andstrongly conceptual. I guess I just presented my thoughts, instead of giving a comment, but I hope
I was able to share with you about how I would like to shape the next Triennale, based on theprevious experiences of the first, second, and the third Triennales.
Museum as Venue for Biennale and Triennale
Osaka ｜The main venue for the Yokohama Triennale 2011 will be the Yokohama Museum of Art,

which marks a significant change from the previous installments. Following the three directors, I
would like to ask now Mr. Lewis Biggs, whose experience includes work as a curator and director

at Tate Liverpool, and who is currently involved in the independent organization of the Liverpool
Biennial, to share his opinion on such points as differences – beneficial or adverse – between

staging a biennial or other international art show at a museum (that plays a central role) andcoordinating such events with an external independent organization. Besides, Mr. Biggs, how are
you handling admissions at the Liverpool Biennial?

Lewis Biggs ｜We don’t charge admission. In England, we don’t charge for newspapers either

because it’s the advertising that pays for newspapers. And I think the idea is that the quality of
the life of the city is what pays for the biennial.

I think the question of not making a charge for admission is very important if we have as agoal to extend the art experience to more people, and the accessibility of the art. If the art is in
the street, it is not possible to charge people for seeing it. But I wouldn’t want the discussion to
focus on this issue because there’s not much to be done about it.

As for the first half of your question, about working inside the museums and working outside themuseums, I think it’s a really fundamental and an important question.

My own experience was extended very much by organizing Artranspennine98*27 while I was

still the Director of Tate Liverpool. This exhibition took place at 40 commissions in 30 different

sites from coast to coast across Britain, from Liverpool to Hull, a distance of about 250 kilometers.
I discovered that organizing or commissioning artworks for sites, which are not a part of the art

PANEL DISCUSSION “Yokohama Triennale – Its Past and Future”｜045world territory, is very different experience from putting art in the context of the museum.

*28 ｜ Media City Seoul
Seoul, Korea

One of the ways to solve this problem (the problem of the different life and meaning of art when

*29 ｜ Shanghai Biennale
Shanghai, China
http://www.sh-artmuseum.org.cn/

inside or outside the museum context) is to try to make the passage from the street to the museum
as easy as possible. I think everyone who works in a museum wants to do this and it’s very
important to be involved in this kind of a mission. But I’m afraid I was lazy and I thought mytime was running out so I just jumped out from the museum altogether. So, I took the easy way.
It’s a question of degrees, isn’t it? Because if it is possible for the public to wander into a museum

without realizing – you can disguise a museum so that people don’t realize that it is a museum.
And then the history of art can be inserted later and everybody wins. It’s very positive. I think

this is important because, in England, at least for a large part of the population, the word “art”
has a negative connotation. So, you need some subterfuge to get people to look at it.

Osaka ｜Thank you very much. It was certainly quite surprising for us to hear that the term “art”

has a negative meaning in United Kingdom. As the Japan Foundation, one of the organizers of

the previous editions, is no longer among the Triennale organizers, the focus of the upcoming

event has shifted entirely to Yokohama and the Yokohama Museum of Art, this time’s main venue.
Where are you seeing an event that has so far taken place at the Yokohama Red Brick Warehouseand piers and warehouses in the Yamashita area heading with a museum in a central position?
May I ask each of you to share your ideas on this?

Nanjo ｜A museum functioning as a venue surely isn’t something extraordinary. It’s the case withshows in Taipei, Lyon, Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art and Fukuoka, and also withMedia City Seoul*28 and the Shanghai Biennale*29. The Documenta doesn’t take place at a museum,
but it is usually staged inside a fixed venue. So as you see, it’s not such a special case after all. In

addition, the benefit of doing the show in a museum is related to costs. The interior of a museum
contains the necessary infrastructure for an exhibition, so we don’t need to spend large amountsof money on the establishment of such infrastructure and the maintenance of a venue anymore,which in my view is an enormous advantage. On the downside, it’s difficult to make use of thevenue’s characteristics to achieve a unique atmosphere. For the 1998 Taipei Biennial, for example,
where I functioned as a commissioner and Ms. Miki worked as a curator, Cai Guo-Qiang (1957-)

suggested, “If you do the Biennial here, you better display the works to be seen from the outsiderather than make everything happen inside the museum.” Consequently, he wrapped up the wholemuseum. Cai made a bamboo scaffolding, got some battered old advertisements as one often finds

them in the streets, and attached them to the construction that enveloped the building completely.
This resulted in an appearance that was quite different from the museum’s usual sight, while theenhanced visibility from outside boosted the overall festive mood. There are a lot of different

methods to choose from in order to become original. As a second aspect, I’d like to point out thecase of the Yokohama Museum of Art, the most important part of which is the grand gallery. It’sa highly unique kind of place, however it is absolutely useless as an exhibition space. We’re talking

about Tange Kenzo’s design, so criticism is normally taboo, but as I’m not involved with architecture,
my opinion is quite frankly that this is one case of museum architecture that completely missed

the mark. The big challenge is then to make the best possible use of it. If you remove all thedisplays from the grand gallery and replace them with something that fits into that particularenvironment, you can create a striking impact, not least because that grand gallery is simply thelargest space inside the museum. I think working out ways of dealing with such tricky spatialconditions is an extremely important issue.
Osaka ｜How about you, Mr. Kawamata?

046｜PANEL DISCUSSION “Yokohama Triennale – Its Past and Future”

Kawamata ｜A museum playing a central role doesn’t necessarily have to be a bad thing, but I

think it would be wrong to place too much emphasis on the museum itself. One may profess thatthe street is a museum, or even that the entire city of Yokohama is a museum, which in otherwords is to say that the idea behind a museum is not limited to one building or an object ingeneral. It’s not only a matter of space, but a museum always involves some kind of authority or

power-exerting aspects, and it somehow feels a bit like artworks are being returned to the museum.
One event that I found particularly impressive was “Chambres d’amis”, a historical exhibition acurator named Jan Hoet (1963-) did in 1986 in Gent, Belgium. He placed artworks in a numberof private homes in the city of Gent, which people then had to visit in order to see the works. I
suggested to Hoet that he didn’t really need a museum for his show, but he disagreed. People first

had to go to the museum to obtain the information they needed before starting their tour aroundthe various venues. Therefore, the museum was an information center that was best to visit first.
Free from any notion of authority or administration, it was simply an open space where information
was provided. It was of course also an exhibition venue, but in this sense, in my view it is certainly

better to let it be a part on equal terms of something bigger that takes place out in the city, forexample, rather than making it a mere showcase for artworks. As soon as it’s presented in a waythat suggests that the art is ultimately coming back to the museum, and the museum swallows up

all the various things that have been done in the city, I think the whole thing gets less interesting,the stronger the power is felt.

Nanjo ｜One example would be the Towada Art Center, the inception of which I was involved.

That museum has a very small space for special exhibitions, and as a result, the facility itself is

ultimately nothing more than a base for all kinds of activities. Every time the museum hosts alarge-scale exhibition, they are taking things out into the streets, as the museum’s concept ismodeled around the idea that art should basically take place outside, and the city should be theactual exhibition space. That’s why I think it is definitely possible to do things at various placesacross the city even when the museum is officially the venue. Such projects require huge amountsof energy though.

Biggs ｜In England, the word “academic” means someone who teaches in the university. But, asEnglish is spoken on the street, the word “academic” is used to mean “something doesn’t matter.”So, “it’s academic” means “it doesn’t matter”.

So, Mr. Kawamata and Mr. Nanjo are absolutely right. It is about power. People in Englandreact against power. They don’t like power. So art should be released from power.

Mizusawa ｜I seem to be the one most involved as a museum curator. I’ve been working mostly

as a curator in a museum that opened in 1951, so I’m perhaps the person who engages most in
the “dialogue with art history” that Mr. Biggs talked about earlier. I think there is a significant
difference in the larger framework of history between museums in Japan and Europe. What haslong been lacking in Japan in particular are places for encountering contemporary forms of art,
which as a matter of fact has partly cast a tragic light especially on the history of Japanese modern
art in the first half of the 20th century. After we lost the war, the museum was the tiny light at

the end of the tunnel that led art out of this confinement and to a point where it got in contact

with people’s daily lives. That’s the state of affairs in Japan. I’m sure that the prefectural governorof Kanagawa who decided to build a museum in 1951, a time when Japan was under American
occupation, was an absolutely exceptional person. That man used to work at a Japanese embassyin France, and his idea was that Japan could probably not recover from the war defeat withoutsome kind of involvement with art. That became one model that Japanese museums were

subsequently based on, which is a very important aspect. In Europe, there is of course the case ofGermany, where many of the museums survived the war, but the Documenta was launched, I

PANEL DISCUSSION “Yokohama Triennale – Its Past and Future”｜047think, as a project aiming to restore what was destroyed under Hitler’s cultural policy. That
generated a massive kind of energy for international art shows, and triggered an engine that began

to run outside the museum. This development has continued up to this day. The opening of the

Yokohama Museum of Art took quite some doing I think, but in the end it opened in responseto the growing demand for a platform for encounter for the citizens of Yokohama. It was aroundthe same time when Tate Liverpool opened in 1989. However, as we just learned, Tate Liverpool

had accumulated various experiences in artistic activities since 1900, so it had already reached acertain degree of maturation, and to some extent established a dialogue between the people andart. I think that’s one fundamental point where we should perhaps start all over again, and in thissense, I’m considering it as a positive aspect about this Triennale that it provides an opportunity
to cement the understanding of the museum as a place for art and people to get together.

Miki ｜I am currently based in France, where museums are valued rather highly, but I work in anart space that is not a museum. It is a place that questions art that tends to turn introspective andblocks off anything that tries to enter from the outside. And therefore, it is a place that was built

on a principle of connecting the outside and the inside, art and everyday life. Getting back towhat I was saying earlier, I think turning the museum into a main base for the Triennale this time
is a very good thing. As Mr. Nanjo pointed out, the infrastructure is already there, and we canleave marks of what we did. In this sense, keeping the museum as a base, maybe not necessarily
always as an exhibition venue, but as a place that is functional. When Ms. Osaka first approached

me about the Triennale, I discussed how it would be important to commission artworks thatremain after the event, so as to make the most out of the large sum of money that finances thisexhibition. It would be a waste if nothing remains. I realized that the giant locust by Tsubaki

Noboru (1953-) exhibited at the Yokohama Triennale in 2001 was later bought by another museum,and the contribution of Choi Jeong Hwa (1961-) to the Lyon Biennale is still there, too. I asked
Ms. Osaka about the possibility of commissioning works for the museum, and her reply was thatthe current situation may involve some budget and location problems. But ideally speaking, aninternational art exhibition of this scale should be able to accumulate its achievements. Lewis

Biggs touched on this issue, too. It could come in forms of public art or an archive; somethingthat can be continued into the future.

Osaka ｜The issue of continuity is going to be a central topic for us to deal with in the future.

While the administrative system of the Yokohama Triennale have been organized by the JapanFoundation up to now, we have finally begun to tackle the Yokohama Triennale 2011 from thequestion how to set up the management side of the project. I would like to ask the directors about

their respective views and suggestions regarding possible directions for management. In cases a
museum is involved, there are various examples of administrative parent organizations – insidethat museum itself, or outside and perfectly autonomous. Considering your experience in thismatter, Mr. Biggs, I would like to ask you to share your views first.

Biggs ｜I should say that when Liverpool Biennial started, a lot of people thought it was a partof the Tate program. And I’m sure it benefited at the beginning from the brand value of Tate. But

the museum has own ongoing program, where you have to make three large exhibitions a year aswell as collection displays and this consumes a lot of time and energy already.

Although there are many advantages in a museum being a lead organization, because you

can organize insurance and logistics and you can persuade lenders with your reputation, there isalso a huge task to do a lot more than you already do without a lot more resources.

I think the situation in Liverpool was unusual because I was a museum director so I was able

to take the infrastructure with me to some extent to the biennial office as an independent
organization.

048｜PANEL DISCUSSION “Yokohama Triennale – Its Past and Future”

*30 ｜ Estuaire Nantes
Nantes, France
http://www.estuaire.info/*31 ｜ Emscher Kunst 2010
Essen, Germany
http://www.emscherkunst.de/Mizusawa ｜Before this meetings, I suggested half jokingly that the first three editions were all“preliminary” Triennales. In fact, we finally arrived at the first stage of making use of the museum.
When I was appointed as the artistic director, I first didn’t understand why we were not using themuseum as a venue It was very natural for me to thing that the museum would be deeply involved

and that the space would be part of the Triennale, too. The museum had not been used until then,and I thought it would be a good opportunity to do so during my appointment. The reason is, as

I and probably all those involved in the previous two editions have experienced, first of all,establishing a public space requires a hub around which a certain spatial construct is defined,
compounded by the movement of people in the space. Without such a configuration andaccumulation, venues become isolated islands without any connection. I doubt if anybody could

accurately remember where the all venues were located in the last three editions. Each edition wasconstructed differently. And if this was all part of the strategy and the effect was calculated, itwould not be a problem. But I think that it was actually a haphazard affair. So, it is worth trying

to turn the museum into a base this time. If it doesn’t work, you can come up with a new idea
again. I think you just have to risk it and think of this as a chance to try the museum out.

Kawamata ｜I think we are talking about how to continue with the Yokohama Triennale but, as

Mr. Biggs pointed out earlier, unless the event is not linked to the local community, I think it
ends up being a one-off event. It’s a question of how you get involved with the community. But

then again, I think a community-based international art exhibitions are not so cool. From myexperience, I can say that the community-based international exhibitions, like the Liverpool

Biennial, are not that common in other countries. I think it’s indeed a rather exceptional format.
For example, there is a biennial event in Nantes*30, which is clearly modeled on the Echigo-

Tsumari Art Triennial. They place works of art along a river. The recent show in Essen*31 again

borrowed much from Nantes, and like Echigo-Tsumari, it focused on setting up site-specific works

for permanent display across one specific region. So in other words, I don’t think there are terribly

many community-based art exhibitions out there. We just have too many of them here in Japan.
Somehow international art exhibitions in this country always end up being site-specific affairs,
and it’s all gotten a bit monotonous, which is where I am seeing the actual problem. But on a
global scale, I would say that there aren’t many international art shows that are related in one way

or another to local issues or town development. The Muenster Scultpure Project has absolutely

nothing to do with the local community; they’re just putting up some artworks and that’s it. Noneof the participating artists would bother to hammer out something that relates to the local
community. One would think that staging the Triennale in Yokohama would encourage

participating artists to consider the unique environment of this particular city, but as I have learned,
they don’t think about such things at all. They all just come to exhibit their own works. That’s why
I think they should spend more time in the city and establish some kind of communicative
platform first, as creating something together with the local people is what ultimately fuels theartists’ motivation and consciousness of the locality.

In my view, the real problem with the Yokohama Triennale is that it totally goes silent during

the three years between one edition and the next. I see these three years to be immensely important.
I actually think that turning the Triennale into a corporate business, as they did it in Liverpool
for example, would be a good idea. Having a company first, and then spending three years raisingfunds and doing thorough research is certainly the best way to go. If you have a company, youneed to generate a budget first, and in order to do so, you’ll have to think about what kind of

exhibition you should organize. Making the whole thing a corporate business rather thandepending on public administration would heighten everyone’s consciousness, and I think it would
also allow for participation from the general public.

One thing that I discovered during my term was that people who get involved as volunteers

or supporters are not so reliable. Volunteers and supporters often use the local government as their
PANEL DISCUSSION “Yokohama Triennale – Its Past and Future”｜049shield to protect themselves and to shift their responsibilities; the government is busy with various
business, and the Triennale is only one of the many things they need to organize. What I saw was

the local government heavily depending on the supporters and volunteers, and the supporters andvolunteers also heavily depending on the government. There should be more tension between the

two. I could say that I came here today, all the way from France, to make a point on this huge
issue.

Nanjo ｜Regarding continuity, it is related to issues of location and organization, whereas in termsof organization, Lewis Biggs’ organization is certainly a very special case. I think it’s really an

admirable that a single man has been able to remain in the top position and ensure that extremely
strong and stable sense of continuity. Ms. Osaka, is your question related to whether or not it isbetter to install the Triennale office inside a museum? In any case, the realization of a triennial orbiennial requires at least a degree of involvement that includes the continuous presence ofprofessionals in the field of contemporary art. This sort of event isn’t something a museum curator
can easily do on the side. Even when it is staged at a museum, it is certainly necessary to set up
a proper system, an environment with people working full-time in an office dedicated to the

Triennale. In the case of the Aichi Triennale, Haito Masahiko, curator at the Aichi Prefectural
Museum of Art, dedicated his time fully to the Triennale for more than a year. Mr. Tatehata

defined the overall direction in his position as general director, and there were various other staff
members, but it appears to me that there has to be a full-time professional curator designated towork at the core, and also a dedicated office with dedicated staff taking phone calls and otherinquiries. It should not be museum staff picking up the phone calls inquiring about the Triennale.
What I am explaining may be too much of a detail, but this is the kind of operation that isnecessary. What Mr. Mizusawa just said reminded me the time when we also discussed how the

Yokohama Museum of Art would take part in our Triennale. In the end, it did not take part. But

it’s only natural that they do. That’s why I’m thinking rather positively about the museum taking
the initiative this time.

Miki ｜ I have one question that I’d like to ask Mr. Kawamata as an artist. What you just said issomething that I am also very much concerned about as a curator. It is a challenge to boost an
artist’s motivation and inspire him or her to deliver a good piece of work. We all know that insome really badly managed international art exhibitions, artists would just send in a CD or a DVDwith a floor plan attached, without making any real effort. As a result, although the list of artists
includes impressive names, the exhibition lacks the energy that is supposed to be fuelled by theartists. There are too many international exhibitions that have a great lineup of artists, but showing
works of low quality. Furthermore, many artists are not interested in taking part in art biennials
and triennials anymore. When an event takes place in such sparsely-populated areas or remoteislands as Setouchi or Echigo-Tsumari for example, they show interest because of the additional
experience of nature that such occasions offer. Urban-style international exhibitions suffer fromthe problem that artists either cannot make the time to travel, or even if they do, they make an
appointment in Tokyo, and even though they come, they are kept from looking at – let alone
relating to – the locality, and ultimately, from producing something powerful. What could a curatorof an urban style international art exhibition do to encourage artists to stay a little longer, develop
an interest in the respective community, and channel a certain amount of energy into the works
they produce there? This is my question to you, Mr. Kawamata.

Kawamata ｜Architects often submit proposals to competitions, don’t they? I think it would begood to do such competitions as well – invite artists to go and check out the venue, and thencome up with something appropriate for the respective location. We’d then select what is best
among the entries. This would at once mean that we’d get only proposals that could be realized
050｜PANEL DISCUSSION “Yokohama Triennale – Its Past and Future”

here but nowhere else, so I really think we should try and do such a competition. In architecture
it’s sometimes done anonymously, and even though I’m not sure how strong the response would
be in terms of submissions, I do think a project-based international art exhibition is an alternative

worth pursuing. For example, participating artists could each propose a project, and they don’t
have to all show at the same time. Like in Liverpool, artworks could be produced whenever it iscommissioned, and it could eventually join the exhibition. So, then, you don’t really have a period
set for the exhibition, because the beginning and the end is not so important. So, an individuallybased project is one option, and a competition is another.

Biggs ｜I’m old enough to remember when museums had static collections. It was wonderful tobe able to go back to the museum time and time again to see the same thing, in exactly the sameplace among other things. Because the art doesn’t change, but people do - they see things indifferent ways at different times. So the business of repeating exactly the same exhibition every
three years sounds wonderful to me.

Osaka ｜Thank you very much. Given the opinions we have heard from each of the panelists today

materialize to some degree, I believe that we will first have to set up a dedicated office andorganization for the Yokohama Triennale to operate on a permanent basis. When looking at therecords of the previous Triennales, it has been stated after each of the three past editions that
preparations have to start and an office for the next one has to be installed right after the current

one closes. We have yet to put that into action. Therefore, regarding the question how to connect

the fourth Triennale to the fifth, I’m hoping that we will eventually find a direction that allows

us to run the Yokohama Triennale from such a long-term standpoint. Thank you very much foryour cooperation!

PANEL DISCUSSION “Yokohama Triennale – Its Past and Future”｜051

PANELIST PROFILE

Lewis Biggs ｜ CEO & Artistic Director, Liverpool Biennial

Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art was born from conversations between its founding Patron,
James Moores, and Lewis Biggs, Director of Tate Liverpool, in 1997. Lewis was a Trustee of theCompany set up in 1998. The first Biennial took place in 1999, and in November 2000 Lewis resigned
from his position as Director of Tate Liverpool in order to become full time CEO and Artistic Director ofLiverpool Biennial.
The 2002 Biennial ʻbroke the rulesʼ by focusing on newly commissioned art, much of it for the public
realm, researched collaboratively and realized by a team of locally based curators. The commitment tothis approach – and its success - established Liverpool Biennial as a significant contributor, with an
unusual and specific rationale, to the international spectrum of biennales.
Since then, Lewis has led the company to become one of the UKʼs leading art commissioning
agencies working in the public realm, dedicated to ʻengaging art, people and placeʼ through projects
such as Antony Gormleyʼs Another Place, Jaume Plensaʼs Dream and Richard Wilsonʼs Turning thePlace Over.
Lewis was Director of Tate Liverpool from 1990 to 2000, (Curator of Exhibitions and Displays 198790); an exhibition officer for the Visual Arts Department of the British Council (1984-87), and Gallery Coordinator for Arnolfini Gallery, Bristol (1979-84). He helped launch the new wave of British sculpture in
the 1980s with Tony Craggʼs first show in a public gallery in the UK (1980); with Objects and Sculpture
co-curated with Sandy Nairne and Iwona Blazwick (1981); Between Object and Image (Madrid,
Barcelona, Bilbao 1986); and Starlit Waters (Tate Liverpool, 1988).
As joint Curator / Director of Art Transpennine 98 (with Robert Hopper) his focus moved beyond themuseum / gallery context. This exhibition, planned from 1994, was realised in 1998, in the form of 40
commissions in 30 sites in the region between Liverpool and Hull.
He is a Director of Culture Campus Ltd, a partnership between Liverpoolʼs Universities and major
regional arts organizations dedicated to enhancing postgraduate studies and ʻgraduate retentionʼ
through employment in Liverpool. He has been an external examiner at art schools including the
Ruskin School, Oxford University; a Visiting Professor of Contemporary Art and an Honorary Fellow ofLiverpool John Moores University. He is General Editor of Tate Modern Artists (a series of books oncontemporary artists appearing since October 2002).
Lewis is a former Director of North West Arts Board and of Oriel Mostyn, Llandudno. He has also
been a member of the Art Panel of the Arts Council of England and of the Visual Art Advisory
Committee of the British Council. He has been a judge for many prizes and competitions, including theJohn Moores Painting Competition. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts.
Nanjo Fumio｜Director of Mori Art Museum

Nanjo worked for the Japan Foundation, among others, before he assumed the position of deputy
director of Mori Art Museum in 2002. He became director in November 2006. His main achievements
include commissioner of the Japan Pavilion at the Venice Biennale (1997), commissioner at the Taipei
Biennale (1998), member of jury committee of the Turner Prize (1998), co-curator of the 3rd Asia-Pacific
Triennial of Contemporary Art (1999), artistic director of the Yokohama 2001: International Triennale ofContemporary Art, jury member of the Golden Lion Prize of the Venice Biennale (2005) and artistic
director of the Singapore Biennale (2006, 2008). He is board member of CIMAM member and also
member of AICA. He lectures at Keio University. He has been awarded commendations from the
Minister of Foreign Affairs.

052｜ PANELIST PROFILE

Publications include Asian Contemporary Art Report: China, India, Middle East and Japan (2010). He
graduated from Keio University in the Faculty of Economics and also Faculty of Letters, where hemajored in art history.
Kawamata Tadashi｜Artist

Since his first exhibition in 1977, Kawamata has worked and exhibited widely in the international art
scene: Venice Bienniale (1982), Documenta 8 (1987), São Paulo Biennale (1987), Documenta 9 (1992) ,Lyon Bienniale of Contemporary Art (1993), Muenster Sculpture Project (1997), 11th Biennale of Sydney(1998), Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial (2000- ) , the 4th Shanghai Biennial (2002), Busan Biennale (2002),
Valencia Biennial (2003) and others. Artistic director of Yokohama 2005: International Triennale ofContemporary Art. Professor of Department of Intermedia Art of Tokyo University of the Arts from1994 to 2005, and currently, professor at. École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris.
Mizusawa Tsutomu｜Deputy Director, Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura

Mizusawa Tsutomu joined the Museum of Modern Art, Kamakura as curator in 1978. Author of Kono
Owari no Toki ni mo (Even at the End) (Shicho-sha, 1989), Tenzai-suru Chushin (Interspersed Center)(Co-author/editor, Shunjusha, 1995), and curator / author of award winning exhibition / catalogs, “Horst
Janssen” (The First Osaka Catalog Grand Prix), “Nature for Art, Art for Life” (The Second Yushodo
Gesner Award), “Mobo Moga” (The Ringa Prize), “Wilhelm Lehmbruck” (1st Western Art Foundation
Group Prize for the exhibition plan), and “Paula Modersohn-Becker” (The Japan Association of Art
Museums Encouragement Prize). He was artistic director for the Yokohama 2008: International
Triennale of Contemporary Art. Recently curated exhibitions include “Rei Naito : Tout animal est dans lemonde comme de lʼeau à l'intérieur de lʼeau,” “OKAZAKI KAZUO: Garden of Supplements,” and “ A
Fateful Journey: Africa in the Works of El Anatsui.” He has received MA from Keio University.
General Director of Yokohama Triennale 2011
Osaka Eriko ｜ Director, Yokohama Museum of Art

Osaka has organized and curated many international exhibitions of contemporary art while at the JapanFoundation and ICA, Nagoya. She was senior curator (1994-1997) and artistic director (1997-2006) at theContemporary Art Center, Art Tower Mito, artistic director at Mori Art Museum (2007-2009) before
assuming her current position as director of Yokohama Art Museum. She has received BFA in
Aesthetics / Art History from Department of Philosophy, Faculty of Letters, Gakushuin University.
Artistic Director of Yokohama Triennale 2011
Miki Akiko

Miki has worked as independent curator, co-director of Dentsu Art Project, before working as chief
curator at Palais de Tokyo in 2000. She has a wide experience of curating exhibitions in an international
context, including 1998 Taipei Biennial and shows at the Barbican Art Gallery in London and National
Museum of Contemporary Art, Korea. She has received BA in Art History, University of Washington,
Seattle, USA, then received MA in Art History, Université de Paris IV, Sorbonne, France.

PANELIST PROFILE ｜ 053

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK［No. of Registered Audience ］203
［Audience No. ］250
［No. of Collected Surveys ］92［Sex ］M: 43 ｜ F: 48 ｜ N/A: 1［Age ］Under 19: 1 ｜ 20s: 29 ｜ 30s: 21 ｜ 40s: 19 ｜ 50s: 14 ｜ 60s: 5 ｜ 70s/over: 3 ｜ Unanswered: 2［Location of Residency ］Yokohama City: 46 ｜ Kanagawa Prefecture: 13 ｜ Tokyo: 23 ｜ Other Areas: 8 ｜Unanswered: 2

About the Kick-Off Meeting- Lewis Biggʼs presentation was very interesting, not only in the context of Yokohama Triennale, but also in thecontext of thinking about art projects in general.
- It was a good opportunity to find out about the potentials of Yokohama Triennale and art.
- It was a good opportunity to hear the past directorsʼ original goals, along with their reflection on what they wereable to achieve as well as what they thought they had failed to achieve.
- The panel discussion was easy to follow, as it connected well with what was discussed in the presentation madein the first half.
- The discussions were so interesting that I regretted that I was not able to visit the past Triennales.
- I wanted to hear more about what is to happen next in 2011 during the panel discussion.
- I wanted to know more about the details of the programs for 2011. The time allocated for the panel discussion
was too short.

Comments on the Yokohama Triennale in General- I hope the next one could have an earlier start and the administrative office can become more permanent.
- Some difficulties have been made visible. I hope the Triennale will continue although there may be times whenits policy may oscillate from time to time.
- The management has been very weak in the past, lacking a clear mission for permanency.
- I think that the objective of the Triennale has not been consistent in the past, due to lack of permanency andstability of the organizational management. The theme has always been grand, but the contents have not always
matched the grandness. A smaller scale Triennale is fine as long as it can show some uniqueness in its approach.
- There has been a general lack of consistency in Triennaleʼs approach, direction and policy. It has never had apermanent venue, too. Each edition has been isolated from each other.
- Yokohama Triennale should become an incorporated body (like the Liverpool Biennial).
- I wonder how many of the local citizens are really interested in this event. I question how much of it is uniquely
Yokohama, and how much financial burden the citizens have to shoulder for this event.
- The publicity campaign should take a more active approach.
- I hope that the citizens can become more familiar with the event, and have opportunities to be directly involved.
- I hope it will be an exhibition in which the elderly could easily participate, too.
- I hope the Triennale will be something that involves the locals in the process of its making.
- The discussion was too serious. I want to know more about how I can be involved, and what role is expected of
the supporter. The Triennale will be less accessible if the discussion involves too much theory.
- I remember the first Triennale to be the most powerful and good. I want the Triennale to continue because it is asuitable event for a city like Yokohama. But the management seems to have been unstable, and I think theaudience is responding less and less, year by year. I hope these issues can be identified so that they can be
improved in the future.
- As a citizen and a visitor, the ʻover 18ʼ artwork that was included in the Triennale in 2008 was useless. The line-upof the works should be such that all the works are suitable for view by children.

054｜ AUDIENCE FEEDBACK

- I hope there will be some permanent works that will remain in Yokohama as a landmark.
- I want to see many more talk programs during the Triennale.
- I saw some very interesting and also impressive artworks during my visit in the past Triennales. Of course there
were ones that I did not understand and also ones that were uncomfortable to view. But I appreciate the simple
fact that art exists in our society, so I hope the Triennale will continue into the future.
- The Triennale is still an unfamiliar event, even to the local citizens. What art is to each person may be different, butmany of the exhibitions of this type end up looking similar. Why is it so? I guess they all try to present a set ofwork of certain quality, but is this why?
- It has been difficult to locate and access the different venues.
- The admission charge should be free of charge.

Regarding Yokohama Triennale 2011
- I hope there will be a balance between the global and local expectations.
- I want to know about the relationship between the main venues and the surrounding venues (incl. Koganecho),and how each location is positioned in the overall context of the Triennale.
- I want the Yokohama Triennale to be a trigger to attract the public to take interest in art. It should be a stimulatingand exciting experience that cannot be experienced otherwise. (There should be some parts that are obvious andeasy to understand and others that leave room for questioning “What is Art?”- I hope that the citizens will have chance to be stimulated from exciting art, especially in times like this, when
Japanese politics and economy are both very depressed. I just want to see as many artworks with energy as
possible.
- I want the Triennale to be a good international exhibition as well as a festival in which we citizens can be fully
engaged.
- Supporters should be trained to become professionals so that they could work closely with the artists.
- I am looking forward to planning and organizing programs as a supporter.
- I want the Triennale to think more about delivering information to the locals. Many people do not know about the
Triennale.
- How will Yokohama and its identity match with the Triennale?
- How will the local neighborhoods be involved? What kind of branding is suitable for Yokohama?
- I want to see something that is unique to Yokohama.
- How about involving schools and neighborhoods so that the local citizens can access art with less effort?
- I hope there will be opportunities where artists and the locals can engage with each other.
- The Triennale would not bear fruit without continuing for a long time.
- Would it be possible to hold the Triennale in a museum? Can the new administrative body really manage theproject?
- I hope there will be some critique on the past Triennales so that the next one will be unique. If the artworks aregoing to be placed in various locations, sighting and routing should be considered carefully. I also want to seesome participatory programs for the citizens.
- The management office should be permanent and the national government (through the Agency for Cultural
Affairs) should support it through subsidy and human resources. Other government agencies (foreign office,tourist board, etc.) should be supportive, too.
- The venues will be limited to two, but this could be turned into an advantage.
- I am interested in the fact that the venues will be compact and the museum will be used as one of the venues. I
am also interested in the relationship between the city and the museum.

AUDIENCE FEEDBACK｜055

YOKOHAMA TRIENNALE 2011 KICK-OFF MEETING REPORT
ヨコハマトリエンナ ーレ 2 011 キックオフミー ティング 記 録 集

発行 : 横浜トリエンナーレ組織委員会

2011 年 3 月

監修 : 帆足亜紀
編集 : 上條桂子
翻訳 : 帆足亜紀、アンドレアス・シュトゥールマン
写真 : 笠木靖之
デザイン : 津山勇
印刷・製本 : 株式会社野毛印刷社
横浜トリエンナーレ組織委員会事務局〒 220-0012 横浜市西区みなとみらい 3-4-1 横浜美術館内

Tel : 045-663-7232
Fax : 045-681-7606
E-mail : info@yokohamatriennale.jp
URL : www.yokohamatriennale.jp

Published by : Organizing Committee for Yokohama Triennale, March 2011
Editorial Supervisor : Hoashi Aki
Editor : Kamijo Keiko
Translation : Hoashi Aki, Andreas Stuhlmann
Photo : Kasagi Yasuyuki
Design : Tsuyama Isamu
Printed by : Noge Printing Corporation
Organizing Committee for Yokohama Triennale Officec/o Yokohama Museum of Art
3-4-1, Minatomirai, Nishi-ku, Yokohama 220-0012 JAPANTel : +81-(0)45-663-7232
Fax : +81-(0)45-681-7606
E-mail : info@yokohamatriennale.jp
URL : www.yokohamatriennale.jp

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No reproduction or republication without written permission.
©2011 Organizing Committee for Yokohama Triennale
Printed in Japan