Harald Szeemann's recent visit to Japan, at the invitation of the Benesse House on Naoshima Island and Kanazawa City's museum construction office, was a rare chance to hear the freelance curator's views on exhibition creation.

In the two lectures Szeemann made during his short stay, he mapped out the turning points of his life and the framework of his perception, and answered questions from the audience in detail, stretching out the two hours allotted for each lecture to four.

Starting out in the early '60s as director of the Kunsthalle Bern in Switzerland, Szeemann found success with "When Attitude Becomes Form," a landmark sculpture exhibition he curated in 1969, which changed the direction of his career and helped launch those of Joseph Beuys, Carl Andre, Mario Merz, Richard Serra, Jannis Kounellis and other artists. The innovative placement of sculptures to create a natural pathway allowed for clashes between contrasting artistic approaches. What seemed like anarchy led to a higher state of harmony than conventional installation approaches, which keep different attitudes apart.

Finding the unfolding of his ideas thwarted by his administrative duties as museum director, Szeemann decided to give up the security of state employment and embark on a riskier journey as an independent curator.

The success of "When Attitude Becomes Form" led to an invitation from the town of Kassel to organize the fifth Documenta, a major event showcasing the state of the arts every five years, in 1972. The 100 days of the exhibition were filled with controversy and surprise. Letting happen what needed to happen, Documenta V expressed the vibrations of its time.

Szeemann says that it has been his privilege since the '60s to witness a second revolution in the arts (the first triggered in the early part of the century by Kandinsky and Malevich's abstract painting). Beginning with the questioning of the necessity for academic authorities, this second revolution unleashed free choice in themes and materials and broke convention in how they were placed.

The discussions provoked by Szeemann's Documenta became the foundation of his reputation as a curator who exposes an era's energy and respects a project's organic growth, whether or not it pleases the audience.

In subsequent years he incorporated more and more works of intense expression in his exhibitions, including creations by those not normally considered "full-time artists." He encouraged patients of mental institutions to contribute their work, as well as laymen who have devoted their lives to outstanding collections of what might seem trivial objects to some. He intended to introduce fresh blood into the art world.

Similarly, Szeemann believes that the visual arts should not be isolated from dance, music and architecture. As director of the 1999 and 2001 Venice Biennales, Szeemann says that he regrets the fragmentation of the shows into separate events at different times. Architecture and film shown this year will never be linked to visual arts shown next year. One day, he hopes, there will be events that embrace all forms of nonverbal expression. The hidden masterwork in an exhibition is not a single canvas or sculpture, but the fact that everything is connected to everything else. No phenomenon can exist isolated, and each action triggers other actions.

Rather than squeezing artworks into the rigid format of a curator's concept, Szeemann focuses on their level of intensity and concentration. He stresses that an artwork's nonverbal aspect touches people much more than explicit explanations. In Szeemann's eyes, a literal comment on a certain issue remains always a comment, but will not become a work of art appealing to people's emotions, ethics and sense of responsibility.

Traveling in a country with a high affinity for aesthetics, Szeemann stressed in his lectures that the nature of the process of creating is more important than the actual result. Whether or not something ends up looking beautiful does not matter. When looking through dozens of young artists' portfolios at Naoshima and Kanazawa, Szeemann remarked that only few had the courage to be anarchic and forget general expectations about making "art."

However, Szeemann was moved by the welcome exhibition prepared for him by art students in Kanazawa and their friends from all over Japan. Rather than judging individual works, Szeemann appreciated the communal effort and urged the young artists to work for their own satisfaction, rather than striving to please an authority. He also enjoyed the fact that he had been invited by more remote venues on Naoshima and in Kanazawa, rather than by established institutions in Tokyo or Osaka. Since 1992, the Contemporary Art Museum on Naoshima Island, in Japan's Inland Sea, has hosted the collection of Soichiro Fukutake, president of the Benesse Corporation, in a gallery-hotel designed by Tadao Ando. The island has also hosted site-specific installations by artists such as James Turell, Tatsuo Miyajima and Rei Naito in specially converted minka.

In Kanazawa, where a contemporary art museum is scheduled to open in 2003, Szeemann was the second foreign curator to share his experience before an audience of art students and citizens.

Probably everyone who met Szeemann this time agreed that his greatest gift is to give undivided attention to anyone who approaches him, no matter how busy he may be. Being a good listener is the core of his success.