Aichi Triennale 2022 Announces Full Program

“Still Alive,” the Aichi Triennale 2022, led by Mori Art Museum’s director Mami Kataoka, revealed its full artist line-up and program of performing arts, learning, and collaborative events ahead of the festival’s opening on July 30. In total, 82 artists and groups will join the Triennale, including newly named participants: the duo Laurie Anderson and Huang Hsin-Chien with a new virtual-reality work, German performance artist Anne Imhof, Nawa (a student collective, the Aichi Kengei Team, initiated by Yoshitomo Nara), and Burmese photographer Shwe Wutt Hmon in collaboration with Kyi Kyi Thar.

The exhibition component will be headquartered at the Aichi Arts Center in downtown Nagoya, where more than 40 artists and groups will display their works. Nineteen artists will show at locations around the nearby city of Ichinomiya, including Chiharu Shiota and The Watermelon Sisters (Yu Cheng-Ta and Ming Wong). In Tokoname, a dozen more including Chicago-artist Theaster Gates, who previously studied ceramics in the city, will exhibit at venues such as Maruri-Toukan, a former earthenware pipe factory.

The performing arts component has a cross-disciplinary focus, with three stated objectives: reenacting historical performances; using new technologies such as virtual reality; and discussing questions of “life and care following the Covid-19 pandemic.” The lineup includes renditions of iconic works by the composers John Cage (directed by Tomomi Adachi) and Steve Reich, as well as avant-garde performances by Mieko Shiomi from her 1966 series of “events,” titled Spatial Poems. Apichatpong Weerasethakul will stage a VR performance with interactive lightwaves and sounds contributed by Japanese composer Ryuichi Sakamoto. Additionally, Gates and Aki Sasamoto will contribute performances as part of their exhibition projects. The exact dates of the programs have not yet been announced.

The Triennale will also feature a learning program involving research projects, workshops, and field research related to Aichi’s history and culture. Seven artists and groups including AHA! (Archive for Human Activities), Yui Inoue, the Shōjō Collective, and Michiro Tokushige, will participate in the program, with projects spanning topics such as local initiatives to have the elderly return their driver’s licenses, creating murals and dolls for local festivals, and designing trading goods with local narratives.

The all-too-resonant title echoes the series of telegrams reading “I Am Still Alive” sent to friends in the 1970s by the Aichi-born conceptual artist On Kawara. Kataoka’s theme for the Triennale touches on subjects including environmental awareness and sustainability, the revival of traditional stories and crafts from the past into the present, ideas of care in the aftermath of Covid-19 pandemic, and experiencing art through the five senses.

The Aichi Triennale 2022 runs from July 30 to October 10, at locations around Aichi prefecture, including the Aichi Arts Center and Arimatsu district in Nagoya, and at sites in Tokoname and Ichinomiya.