The 4th Fukuoka
Asian Art Triennale 2009

Theme: LIVE and LET LIVE: Creators of Tomorrow
Date: Sep.05-Nov.23
Venue: Fukuoka Asian Art Museum and Reizensou
Artists: 43 artists/groups from 21 Asian countries
Website: http://www.ft2009.org/en/index.html


_ Fukuoka Asian Art Museum

Huang Yong Ping, 11 June2002—The Nightmare of George V
Collection: Guan Yi Contemporary Art Museum, Beijing
2002

The Fourth Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial, an international art fair
hosted by The Fukuoka Asian Art Museum is drawing near its
closing. Under the theme, LIVE and LET LIVE: Creators of Tomo-
rrow and including the participation of 21 countries from Asia
and 43 artists, the art fair commemorates the 10th anniversary
of The Fukuoka Asian Art Museum. It was an event reflecting
back on the museum's robust development and changes over
the past 10 years since the new millennium. The Fukuoka Asian
Art Triennial has been giving new emerging international artists
the spot light while providing a forum for discussion about con-
temporary Asian art through its past three events. As it did in
the past, this year's triennial shows a wide range of active ac-
tivities on the international stage, from installation, time-based
media, painting, to other art media. The artists, selected th-
rough research, effectively demonstrate the flow of Asian con-
temporary art, acting as representatives in the large category
of Art and Society. In this triennial, it is worth noting the fact
that it involved artists from 21 countries, where as most of the
art fairs and events in the past have placed emphasis on a ra-
ther limited number of countries like Korea, Japan and China.


Installation view : The 4th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale
Cai Guo-Qiang
I Am an Extraterrestrial, Project for Meeting with Tenjin  
( Heavenly Gods): Project for Extraterrestrials No.4
1990
Collection: Fukuoka Asian Art Museum 


Installation view : The 4th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale
Aung Ko
Memorial Construction of My Childhood
2009

The event was held at the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum located
on the 7th and 8th floor of one of the popular shopping centers
in Fukuoka, and in Reizensou, located 5 minutes away from the
museum on foot. Starting with Jan Leeroy C. New's giant sculp-
tural installation at the entrance of the museum, the space was
filled with works by artists that have become familiar to the pu-
blic through various international art venues. Cai Guo-Qiang,
who has been in the spotlight since his successful exhibition at
the Guggenheim in New York at the beginning of this year, show-
ed his serial works, landscape oriental paintings using gunpow-
der, and installation artist Subodh Gupta from India presented
Stop.Start, a structure made of steel containers (symbol of
capital and power), representing a city contained inside a pile
of capital. Kimsooja, a Korean media artist who focuses on re-
vealing aspects of life through material motives using fabric,
screened a four-channel video work documenting everyday life
in a Laundromat in Mumbai. Other than the above mentioned
artists, Ahn Jungju and Kim Seong-youn from Korea and Xijing-
men, a project group involving Kim Hong-Seok also took place. 


Installation view : The 4th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale
An Jungju
Breaking to Bits
2007


_Kimsooja,  Mumbai: A Laundry Field 2007-2008
 
 An Jungju showed a 4 channel installation media work,
Breaking to Bits which edited the process of a building breaking
down rhythmically in accordance with the sound recorded at
the site, and Videano Project 2 - The Children of Piano School
which is an interactive sound piece where the image responds
to the visitor's input through keys installed in the exhibition
space. Kim Seong-youn, who portrays the everyday life of the
city and the society in which he lives as an aesthetic media
piece, presented a dream-like time-based media piece where
Busan city's symbols the Kwangan Bridge and the Busan Fire-
works Festival are pejoratively portrayed as icons of the city's
urban problems. 


Installation view: The 4th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale
Huang Yong Ping
Python
Collection: Guy & Myriam Ullens Foundation, Switzerland
2000

 Huang Yong Ping, a Chinese artist who makes large scale in-
stallation works using motives taken from history and legends,
displayed Python, an installation derived from the Chinese
metaphor that the natural landscape composed of hills and ri-
vers evokes the image of a dragon and python. The sculpted
python's skeleton, running 30 meters wide across the entire ex-
hibition space, drew many people's attention. 


_Reizensou

Installation view: The 4th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale
He Yunchang
Wrestling: One and One Hundred
2001.3.24

Since its opening, the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum has been run-
ning various exhibition and residence program actively contri-
buting to the international art network. Especially through the
art exchange program, the museum has organized numerous
workshops, lectures, screenings, and artist talks which dyna-
mically involve the local public. An Jungju from Korea and
Xijingmen were also participants in the residency program.


_Angki Purbandono, installation view


Installation view: The 4th Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale
Yasmine Kabir & Ronni Ahmmed
The Last Rites
2008
Photographed by Imamura Kaoru

The Fourth Fukuoka Asian Art Triennial is a meaningful event in
the sense that it provides an opportunity to get an overview of
 the current status of Asian contemporary art, rather than be-
ing curated with a specific theme or issues. One can have gr-
eat expectations for the Fukuoka Asian Art Museum¡¯s future,
as it greets us with Asian contemporary art that has been ex-
panding its territory through rapid societal changes such as the
boom and downturn of the art market along with an important
aspect that reflects on its past.