When the Contemporary Art Biennale of Fukushima was first held, in 2004, its objective was not so much to showcase art as to broaden the horizons of the students at Fukushima University's education faculty, which organized the event. As its fourth incarnation got under way on Saturday, it was clear that in some ways nothing had changed. In others, everything had.
"Can we go and get lunch now? The students will be waiting for me upstairs, and it's getting late." In the course of an interview last Tuesday, Fukushima University professor and biennale director Koichi Watanabe had taken four phone-calls — from artists, university staff and students — and now he needed to make sure the 30-odd students with whom he was setting up the biennale would not go hungry.
No, nothing had changed: The biennale remains first and foremost a university-run operation, with the energetic Watanabe at its helm. As always, funding for the event was limited — to just ¥3 million, ¥1.5 million each from the prefecture and national government. But where Watanabe and his students lacked cash, they had a surfeit of enthusiasm.