The 8th Edition of Yokohama Triennale (as of December 20, 2022)

The 8th Edition of Yokohama Triennale (Yokohama Triennale 2023)

About the Artistic Director

LIU Ding and Carol Yinghua Lu are an artist and art historian respectively who started joint curatorial work in 2007. Based in Beijing, they have participated in international exhibitions around the world including the Venice, Gwangju, Istanbul and Busan biennales.

In a time of historical flux, their curation seeks out kernels of wisdom for surviving the present in both the minutiae of individual endeavor and the grand turning points of history. Their frame of reference transcends time and place, as they seek ideas in everything from traditional oriental philosophy to the globalized lifestyles of the 21st century.

The Yokohama Triennale welcomed its first non-Japanese artistic director for its 7th edition in 2020. Since then the ongoing challenges of COVID-19 and war have shown us just how inextricably interconnected our world has become. For the 8th edition, we once again welcome as artistic director a team that is active on the global stage, and with them we look forward to creating an event that is open to the world and that takes advantage of our port city’s role as a crossroads of people and culture.

LIU Ding

LIU Ding is an artist and a curator. Born 1976 in Changzhou City, Jiangsu Province and now based in Beijing.

He creates artworks using text, photography, installation, painting, performance and other media based on his research into the interplay between art, culture, and politics in modern and contemporary Chinese history.

His recent solo exhibition includes “Reef: A prequel,” Bonnefanten, Maastricht (2015). He’s participated in biennales including Busan Biennale (2018), Yinchuan Biennale (2018), Istanbul Biennial (2015), Asia Pacific Triennial (2015), Prospect 3 New Orleans (2014), Shanghai Biennale (2014), Taipei Biennial (2012), Chinese Pavilion, 53rd Venice Biennial (2009), Media City Seoul (2008) and Guangzhou Triennale (2005). He’s participated in major group shows including “Discordant Harmony,” Art Sonje Center, Seoul / Hiroshima City Museum of Contemporary Art / Kuandu Museum of Fine Arts, Taipei (2015-16); “By Artists: From the Home to the Museum, from the Museum to the Home. Homages to the Works of the Cerruti Collection,” Castello di Rivoli (2019) and “Parapolitics: Cultural Freedom and the Cold War,” HKW Berlin (2018). In 2015, he joined Tate’s online festival “BMW Performance Room” in London.

Carol Yinghua LU

Carol Yinghua Lu is an art historian and a curator.

Born 1977 in Chaozhou City, Guangdong Province and now based in Beijing. She is Director of Beijing Inside-Out Art Museum, where she’s recently curated “Wang Youshen: Codes of Culture” (2022). She was Artistic Director and Chief Curator of OCAT, Shenzhen (2012-2015) and Co-Artistic Director of Gwangju Biennale (2012). She was a contributing editor for frieze magazine (2008-2018), a recipient of ARIAH East Asia Fellowship (2017) and visiting fellow in Asia-Pacific Fellowship Program at Tate Research Centre (2013). She has acted as a jury member for many art prizes, such as Tokyo Contemporary Art Award (2019-2022), Rolex Mentor and Protege Arts Initiative (2019), Hugo Boss Asia (2019), International Award for Art Criticism(2014), Future Generation Art Prize (2012), and Golden Lion Award at Venice Biennale(2011).

Joint Curatorial Activities

LIU Ding and Carol Yinghua Lu commenced their joint curatorial activities in Beijing in 2007.

Their recent co-curated exhibitions at art institutions across China, such as Beijing Inside-Out Art Museum, Art Museum of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, and Beijing 798 Creative, include, “Notes: Chinese Artistic and Intellectual Voices from the End of the Twentieth Century,” (2022); “Waves and Echoes: Postmodernism and the Global 1980s,” (2021); “Waves and Echoes: A Process of Re-contemporarization in Chinese Art Circa 1987 Revisited,” (2020), “Factories, Machines and the Poet’s Words: Echoes of the Realities in Art,” (2019), “Salon Salon: Fine Art Practices from 1972 to 1982 in Profile – A Beijing Perspective,” (2017) toured to Art Museum of Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, Guangzhou (2020).

Other co-curated exhibitions include, Trans-Southeast Asia Triennial: “Sounds as Silence: The Academic Value of Life,” Guangzhou (2021), Anren Biennale: “Crossroads,” Anren (2017), Shenzhen Sculpture Biennale: “Accidental Message: Art Is Not A System, Not A World,” Shenzhen (2012), “Little Movements: Self-practice in Contemporary Art,” OCAT, Shenzhen, MUSEION, Bolzano and Asia Culture Center, Gwangju (2011-2015).

On the 8th Edition of Yokohama Triennale:
The port city’s art missive to a world in conflict

Twenty-one years ago, the Yokohama Triennale kicked off with the title “MEGA WAVE” and the goal of becoming “a great civic festival.” Since then, it has largely continued that mission of being a “festival” for people from all walks of life, held at “port” lapped by the waves of the ocean.

Having celebrated our 20th anniversary, it is now time for the Yokohama Triennale to reconsider and update those two key concepts of “port” and “festival.”

A “port” is a place that enables not just vibrant interaction but also occasional clashes between people and ideas. A “festival” is an occasion that stimulates and seeks to extend not just collective affinity but also collective zeal.

Like globalization itself, both can engender new friendships and new conflicts. If so, we must ask ourselves what kind of message could be delivered from a “festival” that is informed by the spirit of a “port”?

Once again, for our 8th edition we welcome artistic directors who are active globally, and with them we look forward to engaging with the world through art.