Following on its impressive inauguration in 2001, the second Yokohama International Triennale of Contemporary Art is finally here, albeit a year late, and I have to say it has turned out far better than I had anticipated.
There are 86 artists from 30 countries represented at the Triennale, but the person who has best shaped the exhibition's atmosphere is probably artistic director Tadashi Kawamata. Better-known overseas than in his native Japan, Kawamata is an art university dropout-cum-urban interventionist extraordinaire whose bold outdoor wooden sculptural installations gave form to chaos and raised -- nay, contorted -- the bar for public art. The choices Kawamata made at Yokohama have resulted in a show that challenges people to see and celebrate everyday life from new and unexpected perspectives -- reflecting the theme of the Triennale: "Art Circus (Jumping from the Ordinary)."
Last time round, the Triennale was housed mainly in the Pacifico Yokohama Exhibition Hall, a convention center with clean carpeting and pristine white walls (just last weekend it hosted the Japan Remodeling Show). This year, the Triennale is based in a couple of bay-side warehouses out on a pier just beyond a park: A far superior location, which lends the exhibition an edge, a grittiness that says, "The circus is in town."