Artist Yasumasa Morimura to direct 5th Yokohama Triennale

Artist Yasumasa Morimura has been appointed artistic director of the 5th Yokohama Triennale, it was announced Dec 18. The exhibition will be held in 2014, giving Morimura more than a year to prepare.

Although Morimura is not widely known for curatorial activity, his mixed-media photographs, videos and installations reflect a research intensive practice and a critical eye toward Japanese and international art history. The Osaka-based Morimura is the second artist to helm the Triennale, following Tadashi Kawamata in 2005. After significant delays, Kawamata was a last-minute replacement for the originally appointed director, architect Arata Isozaki.

The inaugural Triennale in 2001 was directed by a committee of leading Japanese curators including Shinji Kohmoto and Fumio Nanjo, while the third edition in 2008 featured an all-star trio of international curators – Daniel Birnbaum, Hans Ulrich Obrist and Beatrix Ruf – alongside Japanese peers. Held in 2011, the most recent edition of the Triennale, which was downsized in both scale and budget, was led by the Paris-based curator of Palais de Tokyo, Akiko Miki.

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