Organizing Committee for Yokohama Triennale is pleased to announce the preview artists list of Yokohama Triennale 2014, which will be opening in August of next year.
The preview list of artists includes Kama Gei (Japan), Michael Landy (U.K.), Melvin Moti (Netherlands), Gregor Schneider (Germany), Akira Takayama (Japan), Masahiro Wada (Japan), and Miwa Yanagi (Japan).
At the third press conference held on December 13, the visual design of Yokohama Triennale 2014 was also unveiled. It aims to visualize the exhibition’s key concept, “sea of oblivion,” using linocut images. Michael Landy, one of the artists participating in the exhibition, provided the title lettering that will be used for official materials as the key visual image of the Triennale.
At the conference the artistic director of Yokohama Triennale 2014, Yasumasa Morimura, released the summary of exhibition contents as follows:
Embarking on a voyage into the sea of oblivion
Haven’t we left behind something that is fundamentally important? Have we moved on without realizing it, or simply, left it behind, while knowing it all along?
There are artists and artistic expressions that respond acutely to this realm of oblivion.
Yokohama Triennale 2014 will be a “voyage into the sea of oblivion.” It will make us recall things that have been inadvertently lost from our lives, things that have been perpetually forgotten by human beings, and particular things that have been lost in the contemporary age.
A voyage of silence and whispers
Things that are quiet fail to be recorded, and are therefore forgotten. Whispers remain unheard unless we pay close attention. This is a voyage to explore the richness of the vast world of untold information.
A voyage of fahrenheit 451
Thought control, a process in which things are forcibly obliterated, is a tragedy that has recurred throughout human history. This is a voyage to reflect on this phenomenon and to put it into perspective.
A voyage into the useless
Things that are not useful are discarded and forgotten. But there is a splendid means of saving them: art. This is a voyage that takes us to the essence of art.
A voyage to meet the Enfants Terribles
People discard childhood memories in order to become adults. But some are so enthralled by their memories that they do not grow up. Artists are the epitome of this type. They are children who have failed to grow up. This is a voyage that takes us back to when we were first born, to a place that we left behind when we became adults.
Drifting into a sea of oblivion
The voyagers (viewers) will come to a vast sea of oblivion at the end of their journey. The world that extends beyond the sea is so vast that memories and information cannot match its scale. The voyagers will finally drift into this sea of oblivion. And each of them will search for a destination and set out on a different voyage of their own.
Things that do not speak, things we must not speak about, and things we are unable to speak about.
Things we do not see and things we must not see. Trivial matters and useless actions.
This is a voyage that focuses our attentions on the innumerable things that have been deemed worthless in the realm of memory. It is a voyage to cultivate our gazes.
Yokohama Triennale 2014 aims to present a story of such a voyage through the mind.
More artists are expected to be announced next spring.
