The Yokohama Triennale,
an international contemporary art exhibition, has been held every three years
since 2001, introducing the new concepts and ideas that are shaping culture
through a broad range of works by international established and emerging
artists. Here, Yokohama engages with the world and contributes to the exchange
of ideas and understanding.
Yokohama
Triennale 2020, its 7th edition, will be led by Raqs Media Collective, a
collective of three artists based in New Dehli, India, as its artistic
director. Under Raqs Media Collective's direction, it will take the artists and
co-travelers on a journey through time and space.
The
title of Yokohama Triennale 2020 is "AFTERGLOW," a word chosen by
Raqs Media Collective to reference how, in our everyday lives, we unknowingly
experience the residues of light sparked at the beginning of our time, as in
the case of how the "white noise" on our analog televisions included
fragments of cosmic microwave background radiation left over from the cosmic
Big Bang.
By referring to the Big Bang's destructive energy that propelled
creativity over time, gave birth to life on this planet, and its radiation that
is toxic as well as therapeutic, Raqs Media Collective takes interest in the
cycle of destruction/toxicity and recovery/care in the human activities of the
contemporary age. Together with the artists, audience, and others, Raqs Media
Collective will explore ways to co-exist with toxicity for human sustenace and
survival in this world in flux, rather than eliminate it.
"AFTERGLOW"
will consist of both an exhibition, and "Episodos," or a series of
events that illuminate moments of deliberation. The "Episodos" will
begin in November 2019 in Yokohama, prior to the exhibition that opens in July
2020, and unfold in locations both inside and outside of Japan. In addition,
Raqs Media Collective will share its sources for its deliberation through a
Sourcebook, to expand its views and visions toward the world at large.
About Park Chan-kyong
Born
in 1965 in Seoul, Korea. Lives and works in Seoul. Park works primarily with
film as an artist and is active also as a writer. Exhibited in this Triennale
is his film Belated Bosal, which is inspired by the fact that the names of
Indian nuclear tests and Japanese nuclear reactors are derived from Buddhism.
In the work he examines the distress caused by nuclear power in society today
and associates it with the Buddhist scripture. He held a solo exhibition in the
MMCA Hyundai Motor Series 2019 at the Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art,
Korea. Park was the artistic director of SeMA Biennale Mediacity Seoul in
2014.
