For Aichi Triennale 2022, we put a great amount of effort not only into the exhibition itself, but also into learning programs. As the Artistic Director, I spoke with a wide range of experts and local people, primarily in the region where the Triennale was held, through the program Exploring Aichi and the Greater World: “Learning with the Director.” In this manner I researched the history, culture, and industry of Aichi, and released a video of the interviews.

Whether it is a museum exhibition or an international art festival, organizers do not understand everything when we conceive of an event, and we continue to learn about the concept as we create that event. For Aichi Triennale 2022, it was not possible to conduct overseas research due to the pandemic, and I asked curatorial advisors in various regions to respond to the concept. As a result, about 80% of the participating artists were people I met for the first time. There are nearly 300 art festivals in the world today, and when I was offered the position of artistic director for this festival, we were already in the midst of the pandemic. Considering the events of the previous festival, I felt I had no choice but to reexamine the significance of art itself and of art festivals, and in that sense I thought it was essential for me, as director, to learn more about Aichi.

I am from Aichi, and spent my life here up until university. However, even residents of a region (including me) are not always knowledgeable about their familiar surroundings. “Learning with the Director” was an opportunity for me, as well as for potential Triennale visitors, to learn about Aichi. I also had in mind my experiences at the 21st Biennale of Sydney in 2018, for which I served as artistic director, where we had a series of public talks with past Biennale participants who live in Sydney.

When I talk about what I learn in the process of creating an exhibition, people sometimes say things like “Oh, Ms. Kataoka, there are things you don’t know?” Of course, the world is full of unknown things, and as I said earlier, creating an exhibition is a continuous learning process. For me, contemporary art is itself a site of learning. Art is a means of creative exploration, but it also presents opportunities for people to learn about the world through art. For example, through working with Indian artists, I learn about India’s history, religion, society, and economy.

Why is “knowing things” important with regard to art? I believe that if our understanding of art consists of intuition and knowledge, it is a shame to rely solely on the former. The depth of our appreciation is enriched by knowing the background of the work, with visual information as the entry point. The same can be said of wine, for example. As with a brilliant sommelier who can guess the region and vintage after taking a sip, the combination of the directly experienced taste with the experience of drinking many wines, and knowledge of their background, makes the flavor more complex. This complexity is of great importance, and when you understand this, it makes the process of appreciation worth dissecting.

In Aichi Triennale 2022, the works of the artists displayed side by side, the various venues, and the festival as a whole were woven into a fractal structure of continuity of meaning, based not only on visual aspects but also on a variety of backgrounds and meanings. By unraveling these interwoven contexts, visitors enjoyed the drama of an “art festival” in its entirety.

In the future I would like to focus more on viewing and learning aimed at appreciating such complexity, including through the activities of the Mori Art Museum, of which I am director. Art and crafts classes at schools focus on art-making, or production, but as we live in an increasingly complex world, there should also be opportunities to learn how to appreciate and unravel this complexity through art. How and why do we differ from others, and in what ways is the human race connected? From art, we can learn about both diversity and universality. Learning is important not only as a means of expanding the audience for art, but also because art is effective in enriching the lives of individuals.

With “Learning with the Director,” I wanted to share this “joy of learning about the world" with viewers. One exciting thing about knowledge is that it does not vanish when you teach someone else. Unlike possessions or money, I do not lose it when I give it to others, rather it is imprinted and strengthened within me. Through dialogue we can further increase our connections to various things, and by sharing facts and stories we can engage with the unfamiliar. This is what makes knowledge wonderful, and this is why should share it more and more.

In the Aichi Triennale 2022 learning programs, I felt the power of such knowledge-sharing emanating from the participants. The Aichi Triennale has always been characterized by the large number of people who sign up as volunteers, and when I visited the venues during the exhibition, I saw many residents enthusiastically engaged in the programs. I believe that while people personally enjoyed learning even more about Aichi, they also had the pleasure of being able to talk to others about the knowledge they had gained. And no doubt this also connected to a sense of local pride as a resident of Aichi. In this sense, I feel it was highly meaningful that people living in Aichi had an opportunity to learn more about the world and reacquaint themselves with Aichi while being inspired by artists from various regions.

Even places, people, and things we feel we know well can take on a different appearance when our knowledge, circumstances, and the times change. When things we have already learned are combined with new knowledge and placed in a different context, they can shine with a new brilliance and open up new horizons. In this sense, I think there is great pleasure in the process of learning, of the unknown becoming known.

(Text by Sugihara Tamaki)