Aichi Triennale 2016 in and around the city of Nagoya, Japan runs 11 August - 23 October. At Aichi Triennale 2016, more than 100 artist groups from various genres of art from Japan and abroad will meet and showcase their creations to present cutting-edge contemporary art under the theme “Homo Faber: A Rainbow Caravan.” The theme for the 3rd Aichi Triennale is humankind’s creative journey—or “caravan”—to the unknown, the kind of journey that invariably takes the form of an endless quest driven by curiosity: Homo Faber: a Rainbow Caravan. Among the artists featured will be Kitakyushu Biennial World Tour, a widely internationally active group that takes as their creative starting point not the ideas of individuals but the collective ideas of multiple members, and Ruangrupa (from Indonesia), a collective that exerts a major impact on the local community through the arts, including by operating art spaces and community radio stations. Also, for a limited time, the Luminarium (meaning “house of the moon”), a giant dome-shaped air sculpture designed by the UK-based Architects of Air, will be installed in Okazaki Park. Viewers will be able to enter the sculpture and directly experience a fantastically colorful world permeated with light. Aichi Triennale is a rare international art festival that it aims to showcase, in the most integrated manner possible, the artistic activities of our times, including but not limited to visual art, moving images, music, performing arts, and opera. Visual Arts International Art Exhibition [Works of art shown at museums and other community facilities]

• Eighty groups of artists from Japan and abroad will showcase works of cutting-edge contemporary art.

Performing Arts & Opera Production

• Ten groups from Japan and abroad will give dance, musical and other theatrical performances. Workshops on performing arts will also be organized.
• Saburo Teshigawara, a world famous stage director, dancer, and set/lighting/costume designer who is reputed for his distinctive artistic sense, will work with Gaetano d’Espinosa, a young Italian conductor who is gaining increasing popularity for his outstanding musical talent, to stage Mozart’s last opera, The Magic Flute.

Culture and art as an inseparable part of everyday life

• To offer opportunities to appreciate contemporary art and enjoy hands-on artistic activities, various promotional and educational programs will be implemented. Held under the theme, “Homo Faber: A Rainbow Caravan,” these programs are designed to bring the joy of seeing, meeting, experiencing, creating, exploring, knowing and studying art to participants. The key phrases of the programs are “recovery of humanity,” “idea of bricolage,” “open creation,” “communication” and “journey to the unknown.”

Aichi Triennale is following three basic objectives in order to realize a community-friendly triennial exhibition representing the culture of Aichi/Nagoya, and to make the exhibition a unique outlet of art that attracts international attention. Images: 

• [top] Architects of Air, Pentalum　2013　photo: Alan Parkinson
• [middle] Adriana Minoliti, Primavera/Otoño (Spring / Autumn)　2015　Courtesy of the artist and Galería Agustina Ferreya, Puerto Rico
• [bottom] Art Teaching Toys 　Courtesy of Aichi Children’s Center