The Organising Committee for Yokohama Triennale, chaired by Kondo Seiichi, has appointed Liu Ding and Carol Yinghua Lu as joint artistic directors of Yokohama Triennale 2023. The eighth edition of the Triennale will be the first to be held in winter and the first major display at the recently renovated Yokohama Museum of Art.
It will be the second consecutive edition for which organisers have appointed a non-Japanese director, after Raqs Media Collective became the Triennale’s first foreign appointment for the seventh edition, Afterglow in 2020.
Liu Ding is a curator and artist, who works with text, photography, installation, painting, performance and other media with an interest in the relationship between art, culture and politics in modern and contemporary Chinese history. Carol Yinghua Lu is an art historian, curator and director of Beijing Inside-Out Art Museum, where she recently curated the first major career survey of Wang Youshen, Codes of Culture (2022). She was a contributing editor at frieze (2008–2018) and a visiting fellow at Tate Research Centre (2013).
The pair have been working on joint curatorial activities in Beijing since 2007, including the recent Notes: Chinese Artistic and Intellectual Voices from the End of the Twentieth Century (currently on show at Beijing Inside-Out Art Museum through 24 July) and Waves and Echoes: Postmodernism and the Global 1980s (2021).
Today, the organizing committee for Yokohama Triennale announced the theme of the 8th edition. ‘Wild Grass: Our Lives’ is taken from the Chinese writer Lu Xun’s 1927 anthology Wild Grass.
‘“Wild Grass” is a metaphor celebrating our lives, which are fragile and defenseless but strong and resilient at the same time. It is a metaphor for our lives fraught with many challenges, such as the pandemic, climate change, war in Ukraine, economic disparities, as well as rampant fake news and questions on moral responsibilities on digital platforms’, the committee said in a statement. ‘Starting from the period of Lu Xun, the exhibition traces several historical moments, such as the end of the Cold War, that have consequently shaped the oppressive conditions we face today. By juxtaposing works by contemporary artists from different parts of the world with historical artworks, we can reflect on our way of life and search for hope in our future. With a goal to be one of the best beginner’s guides to contemporary art, the 8th edition of Yokohama Triennale will strive to engage the public in the spirit of “Wild Grass”.’
The eighth edition will be held from 15 March to 9 June, 2024.
