Nagoya –

The politics of Aichi Triennale are anything but incidental.

In August 2019, the art festival located in the titular prefecture closed one of its exhibits just three days after the event opened. “After Freedom of Expression” had contained, among other works critical of the Japanese government, “Statue of a Girl of Peace,” by Kim Seo-kyung and Kim Eun-sung, depicting a young girl representing a wartime “comfort woman.” In response to a coordinated rightwing backlash, organizers closed the exhibit and didn’t reopen it for another two months, which sparked further controversy from the art world over censorship.

For its sixth edition, titled “A Time Between Ashes and Roses,” which opened Sept. 13, the triennale brought on its first foreign artistic director, one organizers must have known would not tread lightly. And in many ways, she didn’t. At the opening ceremony on Sept. 12, a visibly tired and emotional Hoor Al Qasimi, president of Sharjah Art Foundation, Emirati sheikha and bonafide art world bigwig, said, “I call on all of us as people in the arts and culture to really think about our roles. What is our role today, how are we expressing ourselves, what role do we have to play to speak for others who don’t have a platform?”