Preview: 5th Auckland Triennial
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Preview by Laura Howard
In just a few weeks, the 5th Auckland Triennial opens to the public. A three-month festival of contemporary art involving local and international artists, it is the largest Triennial to date.
Preview by Laura Howard
In just a few weeks, the 5th Auckland Triennial opens to the public. A three-month festival of contemporary art involving local and international artists, it is the largest Triennial to date.
Initiated in 2000, and billed as New Zealand's premier international contemporary art exhibition, the Triennial aims to encourage a dynamic conversation about art and its relationship to the wider world.
This will be the first Triennial to be held at Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tamaki since it was reopened in 2011 after extensive development. In addition to Auckland Art Gallery, the Triennial will be presented at eight partner venues citywide, from Silo 6 of Waterfront Auckland to Fresh Gallery Otara in South Auckland. For the first time, entry to all venues will be free.
Titled If you were to live here... the 5th Auckland Triennial aims to examine how artists and creative participants can inhabit and transform social spaces by producing innovative ideas, projects and works. While transforming spaces might sound like a tall order, the Triennial is certain to provide plenty of fodder for debate and the exchange of ideas.
This iteration of the Triennial is curated by internationally acclaimed Hou Hanru, who has previously curated major biennales including Lyon, Istanbul, and Guangzhou. San Francisco-based, Guangzhou-born Hanru states, “The Auckland Triennial interests me with the city’s increasingly vibrant art scene, being one of the leading cities of the Pacific Rim and with its Maori and Pacific influences.”
The Triennial promises a lineup of more than 35 New Zealand and international artists, collectives and architects. Hanru has invited artists to create works that respond to the cultural, social, architectural and urban characteristics of Auckland, and wider New Zealand. These range from the subtle and thought-provoking to the more challenging - Palmerston North artist group Saffronn Te Ratana, Ngataiharuru Taepa and Hemi Macgregor will present Ka Kata Te Po (2011), a large installation exploring the 2007 Urewera incident. Ten artists and collectives from around New Zealand will present work, including Janet Lilo, Tahi Moore, and Peter Robinson.
What is different about this Triennial?
With highly regarded Hou Hanru at the helm, the 5th Auckland Triennial is curated with a fresh focus from an international perspective. The Triennial also features some unusual content in the form of a design-based open laboratory called The Lab, which will bring a performative aspect into the exhibition space. Located at Auckland Art Gallery, The Lab will form a ‘live’ presentation and discussion space and is a joint project of the architecture and spatial design faculties of AUT University, The University of Auckland and UNITEC. Hanru explains, “As a space it functions like an on-going peoples’ university where specialists come to give lectures, students participate in research and the public come to voice their opinions.”
Another change has been made to include a greater number of venues. The Triennial will spread itself across the city to include eight other sites, in addition to Auckland Art Gallery. By taking the Triennial outside the doors of Auckland’s principal public gallery, the aim seems to be to reach and involve more communities across the city. However one cannot help but notice that almost all venues are still within the confines of the central city, which is a disappointment. The partner venues are Artspace, Auckland Museum, Fresh Gallery Otara, George Fraser Gallery, Gus Fisher Gallery, ST PAUL St Gallery, Silo 6, Silo Park and The Film Archive.
Other Highlights of the 5th Auckland Triennial include:
- Emory Douglas of Black Panther fame in collaboration with Rigo 23 and New Zealand artist Wayne Youle at Fresh Gallery Otara
- Korean artist Do Ho Suh, who has previously exhibited at the Hiroshima MOCA and the Tate Modern, and will explore spatial dynamics in a work exhibited at Auckland Art Gallery
- Paris based electronic composer and visual artist Ryoji Ikeda's sound installation at Silo 6
- The many discussions scheduled at The Lab on current issues facing Auckland and New Zealand
Why is the Triennial important?
It is a chance to discover and enjoy the work of a range of New Zealand and international contemporary artists here in Auckland, and see how they view our city through the lens of their work. Hopefully it will engage, provoke discussion and at times confront us over the coming months.
The 5th Auckland Triennial runs from 10 May – 11 August.
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