Concept

While the world today is expanding beyond traditional frameworks, and various kinds of networks are growing, it is being shaken to its foundations by challenges such as conflict, refugees and immigration, and the emergence of protectionism, xenophobia, and populism. At the same time, the world is awash in data far exceeding the processing capacity of human beings, and in an increasingly complex and sophisticated environment where communication tools such as social media are developing rapidly, people appear to be banding together into small, disparate groups of “island universe” and communities. Also, there is increasingly assertive activity by a wide range of small-scale organizations that challenge the dictates of superpowers and centralized political systems.

Against this backdrop of widespread disruption of conventional social frameworks and values, Yokohama Triennale 2017 embarks on a multi-faceted examination, through art, of the themes of connectivity and isolation, under the title “Islands, Constellations & Galapagos.” We will contemplate the world in which conflicting concepts and phenomena are intricately intertwined and constantly in flux, the nature of identity and diversity, and how the imagination and creativity of human beings can be used to derive a new vision and ground design for the future when our future remains uncertain. At the main venues ‒ Yokohama Museum of Art, Yokohama Red Brick Warehouse No. 1, and Yokohama Port Opening Memorial Hall ‒ works in diverse media by approximately 40 artists or groups from Japan and the world will be exhibited. It will resemble an aggregation of small solo exhibitions by a tightly selected number of artists, with many of them showing multiple works. This is intended to give the viewers a deeper understanding of individual artistsʼ creative worlds, and at the same time, to embody the image of these worlds gradually connecting like stars or islands forming constellations and archipelagoes.

Participants include artists who consistently address issues with their own unique methods, and carry out activities that transcend existing frameworks and concepts, as well as collaborations among artists and projects that address pressing social issues from an artistic point of view. The themes dealt in their works are broad: some refer to the individual and society, the self and other, and states and national borders, utopia, and others question different historical views, human activities, and civilizations as well as specifically Japanese issues of isolation.

In the planning and conceptualizing stages, the Triennale has deepened the concept from various angles through a Conception Meeting that includes experts from different fields. Also, we are organizing the Yokohama Round, a series of dialogues also featuring experts from various fields, as a platform for discussions and sharing, and exploring ideas through both visual examination and dialogue. In addition, we will collaborate with the local educational institutions such as the Yokohama Graduate School of Architecture “Y-GSA”, Yokohama National University and highlight historical sites in the city, seeking to approach the historical background of the opening of the port and the nation as a whole from multifaceted and locally grounded perspectives. While understanding how this present world came to be and where it stands at this moment, we hope that the Yokohama Triennale 2017 will encourage visitors to think about connecting todayʼs memory to the future generations and ways of realizing co-existence in our society.

We now open the sixth edition of Yokohama Triennale, which was inaugurated in 2001.

In the last 16 years, we have seen a growth in the number of biennales and triennales, which have become a frequently-organized event in different places in and out of Japan; a flourishing landscape that could scarcely have been imagined when the first Yokohama Triennale was held in 2001. This year, the Venice Biennale and documenta will take place along with Skulptur Projekte Münster that occurs every 10 years. In Japan, in addition to Sapporo and Ichihara, the Japan Alps, Oku Noto, and Tanegashima are newly established.

Each of these international exhibitions and festivals are different in their history and size, therefore, not easily comparable. Yet given their rise in the number, since the fourth edition in 2011, we have given due consideration to the fact that Yokohama Museum of Art is the primary venue and the history of Yokohama overlaps with the Japanese modernization, in order to be unique and engage ourselves with communities in and outside of Japan.

We believe that biennales and triennales can provide opportunities to engage closely with the new expressions presented by the contemporary artists, foster multifaceted perspectives, and fathom thoughts on the world and people. Today, when conflicts are frequent and introversion is rampant, the inherent qualities of contemporary art including creativity, imagination, and the multiple perspectives, can be a guiding star in order for us to survive this convoluted world.

In preparing for this edition, we have taken a unique approach of inviting experts from different fields, including philosophy, math, anatomy, and sociology, among others for dialogues and discussions. In addition to the exhibition, we have various programs, including Yokohama Round, Yokohama Sites, Yokohama Program, Yokohama Screening all that connect various activities and practices, including hands-on workshops, walks, performances, film, among others.

We hope to seek new possibilities by connecting things that are different and isolate, through dialog, contemplation and imagination. We hope that through Yokohama Triennale 2017, we will see people opening up their wings of imagination and attaining fecundity that multiple perspectives offer us.

2017 marks the 150th year since the return of political power to the Emperor in 1867, which signified the collapse of the feudal system and the beginning of Japan’s drastic modernization. With the restoration of Imperial sovereignty, Japan ceased to be a nation ruled by samurai, and the new Meiji Period (1868-1912) of rapid change began. One major factor contributing to this change was the opening of Japan’s ports to overseas trade during the Ansei Era (1854-1860), after over centuries of enforced seclusion. The village of Yokohama, which had been no more than an impoverished hamlet during the Edo Period (1603-1868), was one of the new trading ports that opened in 1859, and its infrastructure rapidly developed. Inevitably, as a new international crossroads of trade, people, and culture, Yokohama became one of the cities leading Japan on its dramatic march away from Galapagos-like isolation, toward connectivity with the world, and eventually to modernization.

This edition of the Yokohama Triennale aims to examine the diverse issues we face today in a multidisciplinary fashion, drawing ideas from various perspectives closely tied to the overall theme, including “connectivity” and “isolation.” One aspect of this will be a conscious focus on the historical background of Yokohama, which may seem at first glance to be unrelated to contemporary art. The selection as venues of historic buildings in the city that symbolize Japan’s modernization, and the inclusion of artists that address Yokohama’s historical record and topography, is also based on that viewpoint, as is our identification and introduction of several historical sites and facilities near the venue that seem to resonate deeply with the theme of this Triennale.