LEARNING
“Art is not just for art lovers, itʼs for everyone to enjoy in their own way.” This is the concept for Aichi Triennale 2022 Learning Programs, which are designed for a wide variety of people.
The following pages contain reports of activities since 2021.
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Research:
This research project on “Aichi,” home to the Triennale, will emphasize knowing where we are located in order to engage with the world’s diversity of expression.
Artists and participants chosen from the general public spent several months conducting multi-faceted research from historical, cultural, and sociological perspectives. The results were exhibited during the festival and further developed over a series of workshops and other activities. -
Lecture Series:
This lecture series addresses the theme of “arts festivals” by taking a historical and critical look at Aichi and other arts festivals, as well as the fine and performing arts from multiple perspectives. Initiated in 2021, the series’ archive is now available on the official website.
Talks and discussion by artists, curators, and other specialists were held during Aichi Triennale 2022. -
Guided Tours:
With the help of the guideʼs commentary and interactive viewing of the exhibits, visitors were able to broaden and deepen their insights, understanding, and overall viewing experience. Curators and volunteers guided visitors through the Aichi Triennale 2022, according to individual needs, including tours for those speaking languages other than Japanese or for persons with a visual or hearing impairment.
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Educational Programs:
We offered a group viewing program for students to experience the Aichi Triennale 2022. We also held a training program for educators to link the arts festival and schools.
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Volunteer Programs:
Volunteers trained in interactive appreciation techniques enabled visitors to enjoy a thoroughly interactive viewing experience. They also supported Aichi Triennale 2022 through a variety of activities such as venue management, interactive viewing guidance, and guided tours.
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Learning Room:
The Learning Room served as the base for our Learning Programs, where we exhibited the results of “Exploring Aichi and the Greater World,” a program that began in October 2021 with six teams of artists engaging in activities together with participants recruited from the general public. In the Open Space at the end of the exhibition, we held various workshops and lectures.
About Learning Programs
Aichi Triennale 2022 Learning Programs are based on the fundamental concept that “art is not just for a few knowledgeable enthusiasts, but for everyone to enjoy and appreciate in their own way.”
For example, an arts festival can be like a festival at a local shrine where people wearing matching blue happi coats carry portable altars while kids fire air rifles at stalls and play with firecrackers. We believe that people who come to see or participate in art festivals can and should feel they are doing so as members of the community, and feel they are part of society’s spaces and narratives. To that end, Aichi Triennale 2022 Learning Programs aim to dispel the stigmatized image of contemporary art as “difficult to understand,” and to encourage people to come, view works without preconceptions, and engage directly with art.
Contemporary art is, after all, created by individuals and groups living their lives somewhere in the world, just like us. Through their works, the viewer has the opportunity to encounter the world from the perspective of another person in another place. Looking at art sparks all manner of reactions within us, enabling us to discover new value in things and phenomena we usually overlook, realize the ways in which we are connected to history and society, or feel anew the sublimity and the absurdity of being alive.
Engaging with art, learning about the world, and knowing oneself are inseparably linked.
Aichi Triennale 2022, an arts festival that brings together contemporary art from all over the world including Europe, America, the Asia-Pacific, Latin America, and Africa, is an opportunity to encounter the works of many artists from many regions, and to see and think about things from many perspectives. We see the entire scope of these processes ‒ broadening and deepening our understanding of the world, and conversely turning inward to re-examine ourselves ‒ as “learning,” and offer programs to facilitate it.
By learning through art, every one of us can acquire the power to grapple with the unforeseeable events that will surely continue to occur, to live in the present moment, and to realize a world open to myriad future possibilities.
Yamamoto Takayuki (Curator (Learning), Aichi Triennale 2022)
Concepts
- Inclusion: By actively participating, each person can feel that they are being celebrated.
- Affirmation of Diversity: People can engage with diverse ways of being ALIVE expressed by artists living and working today, and share their points of view.
- Learning About Ourselves and the World: By learning about the historical and cultural background of the Aichi region and seeing things from specific, local vantage points, people can prepare to engage with perspectives on the world through a wide range of works brought together from around the globe.