December 4, 2017

Last week I attended a day of discussions at the Queensland Art Gallery in relation to the development of the Asia Pacific Triennale in Brisbane. The discussion was stimulating and the breadth certainly opened up my understanding of current Asian and Pacific contemporary art discourse. Of particular interest was a discussion by Shihoko Iida, Chief Curator of the Aichi Triennale and Professor of Art, in Japan. I was fascinated by her discussion of the trend of public art festivals in Japan in recent years in relation to urban revitalisation particulalry due to aging and decreasing populations in more isolated areas and how these festivals strategies were spreading around the country. This is mentioned in the local Aichi authorities vision for 2020. She also discussed the complications of working as a curator between government processes and artists processes. A quick search in relation to the subject and I did find that Art Setouchi, does site this as the reason for it's development. The reason why I am interested in because of the collaborative work I am doing with the Men's shed which is primarily, but not exclusively, a seniors community. It has allowed me to consider the broader social aspects of working with an ageing community and how the arts potentially can play a role in our urban social development in relation to this community. The men's shed example of 'shedagogy' focuses on the building of community through learning in an informal educational environment through doing and is not dedicated to the arts, although I worked with them on an artistic project. The Japanese example is certainly expansive, as it is a national network of arts festivals dealing with this issue, but looking towards culture for revitalisation, recognising that Japan is no longer a manufacturing society and most of this activity has moved towards other Asian countries.