In Douglas Adams' future dystopia novel "The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy," a giant computer finally determines the answer to the meaning of life: 42. The joke was that nobody knew the question.

In April 2000, Yasuko Furuichi, exhibition coordinator at the Japan Foundation Asia Center, had her own big question: What is Asia? She posed it not to a computer but to a group of curators. Their answer: 43.

The 43 artists in "Under Construction: New Dimensions in Asian Art," showing in Tokyo until March 2, were chosen by eight curators from seven Asian countries, were shown in seven group exhibitions throughout Asia, and are compiled here in Tokyo in one show at two venues: at the Japan Foundation Forum in Akasaka and at the Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery in Hatsudai. The exhibition is a lot like your first day in Bangkok, sans guidebook -- exciting, cramped, chaotic, confusing and tough to get around.

The Japan Foundation's Asia Center, a semigovernmental organization, promotes intellectual exchange and cultural vitality in Asia. One of its missions is to introduce contemporary Asian art to Japan. Over the past decade, these efforts have included solo shows of Asian artists and various conferences (a symposium related to "Under Construction" titled "Asia in Transition: Representation and Identity" was held Dec. 13-14).

Compared to recent projects, however, "Under Construction" digs deeper, trying to get at the very roots of Asian identity. Globalization, the Internet, tourism, modernization and other factors have led to breakneck growth and development, causing sociocultural transformations within many parts of Asia. As Furuichi writes in the exhibition catalog, these forces have led to greater connections throughout the region and also caused Asians everywhere to confront their national and transnational identities.

During the '90s, the art world began to include an increasing number of Asians in international biennials and other opinion-shaping showcases, intensifying the identity issue, at least for globetrotting Asian art stars. Still, in what is sometimes characterized as an unwitting extension of colonialism, most of the curators doing the selecting were Western, not local.

The Asia Center wanted an Asian view of Asian artists. One problem, Furuichi notes, was that Japan's 20th-century imperialist march through the region didn't endear it to its neighbors and past attempts by Japanese organizations to sponsor projects within Asia were often denounced as cultural imperialism. So, rather than sending only Japanese curators, "Under Construction" aimed to capture the current Asian contemporary-art zeitgeist through the collaboration of eight curators from seven Asian countries: Pi Li from China; Ranjit Hoskote from India; Asmudjo Jono Irianto from Indonesia; Yukie Kamiya and Atsuo Yamamoto from Japan; Sun Jung Kim from Korea; Patrick D. Flores from the Philippines; and Gridthiya Gaweewong from Thailand.

In August 2000, the curators met each other for the first time. All spoke English and were roughly the same age (born in the 1960s and '70s) and most had some overseas curatorial experience or education. Following working seminars in Japan and research trips to various Asian countries, the curators held seven "local exhibitions" in fiscal 2001, one each in Ashiya (Hyogo Prefecture), Manila, Beijing, Seoul, Bandung (Indonesia), Bangkok and Mumbai.

Each show was organized according to different principles with a different curator or curatorial team. In general, they brought together Asian artists working with similar ideas, regardless of nationality (this is not an Olympics of art, they stress). The somewhat reciprocal Manila and Ashiya shows, curated by Flores and Yamamoto respectively, shared some of the same Filipino and Japanese artists dealing with issues of craft and transcending borders. Kamiya, Kim, and Li curated the nearly identical Beijing and Seoul exhibitions, both focusing on daily life and fantasies in the work of Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Thai artists. In Bandung, curator Irianto built a temporary barnlike gallery to show Indonesian artists. The Bangkok show, curated by Gaweewong, took place in three venues around the city and featured Thai, Indian and Chinese artists. The Mumbai show, under Hoskote's direction, included Indian and Filipino artists dealing with postcolonial issues, media and the body.

These shows, co-sponsored by the Japan Foundation and local groups, were meant to lay the groundwork for an art infrastructure within and among the countries, and to encourage connections among the curators.

Curators often work alone rather than in groups, so this veritable ASEAN summit of the arts must have required patience, determination and diplomacy. In their comments, however, the curators were refreshingly frank and eschewed talk of perfectly synced interaction.

"Good, bad, terrible, exciting, frustrating" is how curator Gaweewong summed it all up. There were, naturally, logistical hurdles, such as language problems, sudden venue changes and e-mail overload, not to mention a Chinese construction crew that had trouble differentiating "art" from "non-art."

Judging from each curator's essay in the exhibition catalog, there were also serious differences in the critical framework, purpose, organization and implications of the show. Nonetheless, they found common ground. As Hoskote put it, "Each supposed difficulty was very stimulating."

All agreed that one of the most interesting things they learned was that each curator had very different ideas about Asia, being Asian, art and how to organize a show. "What you take for granted, others don't," Hoskote said. They credit their cooperative process with helping them understand different ways of perceiving art and Asia.

One of the final debates was how to organize the Tokyo exhibition. "The most difficult thing," Li said, "was that we had so many ideas but only one show.

"All of the local shows had different directions and we didn't want to destroy their underlying meanings," Kamiya added.

In the end, they decided not to re-present individual units but to let them commingle and to see what new juxtapositions would produce. Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery and its chief curator Mami Kataoka joined with the Asia Center in the final collaboration of financing and space.

The group used keywords for the local shows as the framework for the Tokyo exhibition, matching them to the characteristics of the two crosstown galleries. The Foundation Forum is a dark, mysterious theatrical space, which fit the themes of Memory, Enigma, Fantasy and Dream. Opera City is bright and open, suiting Mobility, Daily Life, Habitation, Transforming, Hybrid and other ideas.

So here we have it, seven local shows, three working seminars, countless e-mails and nearly three years later, a potluck dinner of contemporary Asian art. We know the question (What is Asia?). We have an answer (43 artists). But, somehow the meaning of this sprawling adventure in identity exploration and curatorial panache eludes. The parts just don't congeal.

Maybe they're not supposed to. According to the curators, the title "Under Construction" refers to the message seen on connected, yet unfinished Web sites. Also, as Kim writes in her catalog essay, when the project started three years ago, "what Asia is was much clearer . . . however the question has grown more and more complicated and unclear."

As Hoskote said, "We didn't hope to have the answers." Moreover, Kamiya said, "You cannot articulate 'Asia' in one word but through different voices. We didn't expect one result."

Is this big muddle a metaphor for Asia then -- not easily defined, amorphous, ever-changing? If so, it does little to assuage the disorientation visitors are bound to feel.

The curators' free-flowing connections and divergences would have been easier to navigate if they had included a concise conceptual diagram of how the show came about, who was involved and why the results appear as they do. Visitors shouldn't have to read the entire catalog to get the gist. This is supposed to be a Sunday afternoon art stroll, not a three-day seminar.

But, like Bangkok, the show is rewarding in individual moments. Some examples: Kim Boem offers a simple, effective transformation of idea and form in his sculptural installation, which is literally "An Iron in the form of a Radio, a Kettle in the form of an Iron, and a Radio in the form of a Kettle." Kim Sora's installation looks like a bank counter with long blue, red and green banners hanging overhead identifying it as "Capital Plus Credit Union." Every deposit you make -- of anything you like -- is guaranteed 3 percent interest in either size, weight or quantity. Bharti Kher raises issues of national identity and representation in her pair of bulbous "trees" covered in marbled swirls of bindis standing over a fake tiger-skin rug.

Often the "dialogue between the works" suffers from the cramped exhibition layout, designed by Atelier Bow-Wow. Inside Mareeya Dumrongphol's contemplative, clay-smeared room, you can hear people stomping up the ramp and platform (an installation by Lee Mik Yung) that forms the ceiling to her small space. Is that dialogue or just interference? Likewise, Hiroshi Kitao's metal flowers and trees are spread through the galleries like kudzu, squeezing out their neighbors.

Ultimately, "Under Construction" succeeds more in highlighting questions about the art world, Asia and postcolonialism than it does in showcasing new artistic talent. Through much of Asia, "curator" remains a largely unknown term. Addressing this issue in practical terms -- establishing a viable network of contemporary art curators and infrastructure within Asia -- is an important outcome of this project. "As Asian kids from the '60s and '70s, we always look toward America and Europe, but this was a chance to look at our neighbors," Gaweewong said.

Other curators echoed this. "We created a network through which we can understand our positions as Asians," Kamiya said.

And in an apt metaphor for what the curators' joint project means to the future of Asian contemporary art, she added: "We are all the same level physically. We don't have to look up like we do when we collaborate with Europeans or others."