Features

The art festival bringing together noteworthy art from across Asia and the Pacific held (almost) every three years in Brisbane, Australia is now underway. The sixth and latest edition of the Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art (APT) boasts more than 100 participating artists from 25 countries including Japan. What are the attractions of this international art exhibition different in many ways to the biennial/triennial models of Europe and North America?

 APT6: A beginner's guide




 Interview: Nara Yoshitomo (YNG)
 
Thanks to APT, now conscious of the Asia-Pacific as one big region
 



 Interview: Suhanya Raffel (APT6 lead curator)
 
We respect local art forms made according to local histories
 



 APT6 review

 Snapshots

 Video
 
Subodh Gupta, Gonkar Gyatso, Wit Pimkanchanapong,
Thukral & Tagra, Zhu Weibing & Ji Wenyu (in English)
Nawa Kohei, Ohmaki Shinji, Sawa Hiraki (in Japanese)

The 'noughties' now dispatched, a new decade is upon us. Amid a change in government in Japan, the loss of some big names in the entertainment world, and ongoing economic turmoil, we look back on contemporary art in 2009, and ahead to ponder what 2010 will bring.


 ART iT contributor best five exhibitions of 2009




 Reflections on 2009 and the first decade of the 21st century by Sawaragi Noi





 Looking back on 2009 by Shimizu Minoru




 Must-see exhibitions in Japan 2010

An artist whose 'sketches' of contemporary Japan that have taken as their stages the bathhouse, the kitchen, the commuter train, and public toilet, making them a mirror to reflect her own inner life, now takes up 'the generations' as her latest theme. What sense of the world does this popular artist born in 1970 portray? And what new horizons will she open by collaborating with dancers and theatre companies of the same generation?

 Artist interview: Tabaimo



 Ohad Naharin




・Snapshot: Tabaimo: Danmen @ Yokohama Museum of Art

・Profile: Tabaimo Works

・ART iT Picks: Tabaimo: Danmen

Filmic expression in all its myriad manifestations has altered and proliferated dramatically since its inception in terms of motifs, techniques and style, to the extent that it's easy to forget film itself has only existed for little over a century. Cinema, TV, video, the internet... having been through the ups and downs of making, viewing and sharing images via them all, we suddenly pause and wonder, how do the images we have changed project a world changed by images? The stage is set for 30 days experiencing the connection between 'projected' and 'real' images, in a harbor town that in times past owed its growth to an open and insatiable urge to absorb culture from all over the world.

 Review: CREAM International Festival for Arts and Media Yokohama New!!


 Visitors' guide to the festival


 Conversation:


 
Hachiya Kazuhiko (Artist) + Ukawa Naohiro (Judge of CREAM competition) + Sumitomo Fumihiko (Director of the festival)


 Artist interview: Pipilotti Rist
 
I'm merely giving color back to the world, coming close to reality.
 



 Artist interview: Shimurabros.
 
Combining the cutting edge with something that feels vaguely familiar.


 Artist interview: Hachiya Kazuhiko
 
Giving shape to the imagination


 Artist interview: Shiga Lieko
 
Experience image through body – song as a bridge


 Video
 
Chris Chon Chan Fui + Morinaga Yasuhiro


 Powerful yet transitory film and new media  by Sawa Takashi


 CREAM artists on the possibilities and challenges of media art


 Snapshots 1
 
Eko Nugroho / Matsushima Shunsuke / Teiden EXPO / Hachiya Kazuhiko

 Snapshots 2
 
Fujihata Masaki / Michael Snow / Paulien Oltheten / Chantal Akerman / Wang Jian Wei

Installation view of Best of Discovery at ShContemporary 2008  Courtesy ShContemporary

What kind of impact did the 'Lehman Shock' of September 2008 have on the art market? Has the market recovered from this impact or not? How have the purchasing habits of collectors in various countries changed? Which of the art fairs in Asia is the most important? We predict the future of the market based on the results of a survey of some of Asia's leading galleries as well as interviews with the new director of the ShContemporary art fair and a curator of the fair's curated exhibition.


Interviews

Colin Chinnery, Director, ShContemporary 2009




Kataoka Mami, Curator of the Discovering Contemporary exhibition at ShContemporary 2009




Survey

The 'present state of the Asian market' according to galleries in Japan and Asia



Index
•Japanese galleries: On the characteristics of the Asian market
•Japanese galleries: On trends in the art market
•Japanese galleries: On Asian art fairs
•Other Asian galleries: On the characteristics of the Asian market
•Other Asian galleries: On trends in the art market
•Other Asian galleries: On Asian art fairs
•Comments: Characteristics of the Asian market and Asian collectors



Art fairs in Asia

Claude Lévêque In silence or in noises 2009

A chance to experience art from around the world amid natural surroundings, in quiet rural settings far from metropolitan galleries and museums. The producer of the event asserts that 'contemporary art shines brightest where nature dominates', while the director adds that the Triennial is 'a festival for the earth'. Why not head for Niigata this summer and check it out for yourself?


 Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial 2009: a beginner's guide


 Interview with Kitagawa Fram   Part 1  Part 2




 Talks on video


Hellen van Meene
Mukaiyama Tomoko
Jennifer Wen Ma
Fukutake Soichiro
Cai Guo-Qiang

 ART iT Picks by Shirasaka Yuri




 Snapshots


Tsunan area: Jennifer Wen Ma, Cai Guo-Qiang
Tokamachi area: Mukaiyama Tomoko, Antony Gormley
Matsunoyama area: Shiota Chiharu
Matsudai area: Claude Lévêque, Ozawa Tsuyoshi, Kusama Yayoi
Fukutake House: Ko Kyung-Ho, Mori Hiroharu, Watanabe Eiji, Chiba Masaya et al.

The Japanese pavilion at Venice, a renowned piece of architecture in its own right, is to be transformed into a tent. Meanwhile an historic building on the Grand Canal will be reborn as an art museum, with one of the rooms inside displaying photographs of mannequin sculptures. All the work of Japanese artists Yanagi Miwa and Sugimoto Hiroshi and architect Ando Tadao; a trio sure to make a splash in the city of water this summer.

- Interview with Yanagi Miwa
　http://www.art-it.asia/u/admin_interviews/ny8YGCieDwx1kSE07MaF/

- Yanagi Miwa talks on video
　http://www.art-it.asia/fpage/?OP=mov

- Conversation between Ando Tadao and Sugimoto Hiroshi
Creating an alternative world: What is the ideal art museum architecture?
http://www.art-it.asia/u/admin_columns/rQxfVue0JaKIknGpOEcz?lang=en

- Sugimoto Hiroshi talks on video
http://www.art-it.asia/fpage/?OP=mov

- The Venice Biennale: a beginner's guide
http://www.art-it.asia/u/admin_words/jYdUcfOV8zQPL6eEZT3F?lang=en

- An ultra-brief review of the 53rd Venice Biennale
http://www.art-it.asia/u/admin_exrev/?y=&m=&d=&ca1=10

- Venice biennale snapshots
http://www.art-it.asia/u/admin_exrev/?y=&m=&d=&ca1=10&lang=en