Okayama Art Summit 2016: Development

Development: Okayama Art Summit 2016 is the first edition of a new triennial. 

The exhibition takes place in a number of venues in Okayama including several modernist buildings by pioneering Japanese architect Maekawa Kunio.

Major new works and commissions have been produced by Yu Araki, Trisha Baga, Noah Barker, Anna Blessmann and Peter Saville, Angela Bulloch, José León Cerrillo, Michael Craig-Martin, Simon Fujiwara, Ryan Gander, Liam Gillick, Melanie Gilligan, Rochelle Goldberg, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Tatsuo Majima, Katja Novitskova, Ahmet Öğüt, Jorge Pardo, Rachel Rose, Cameron Rowland, Shimabuku, Motoyuki Shitamichi, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Anton Vidokle, Hannah Weinberger, Lawrence Weiner, and Anicka Yi.

The exhibition also includes installations of important works by Robert Barry, Peter Fischli David Weiss, Pierre Huyghe, Joan Jonas, and Philippe Parreno. The majority of the artists will attend the opening days and will speak about their work on October 9.

Development is a term loaded with implications and potential. It projects a goal still out of reach; it suggests motion and indicates that change will take place. It was deliberately chosen as the title of the first Okayama Art Summit to offer a self-conscious acknowledgement that another new episodic art event is underway. Here, the word development also relates to an interest in pre- and post-production—in the realms of cinema, advanced capitalism, and strategic planning. Indeed, development has become a fetish; it can be endlessly deferred. From the tech startup to the promise of social change, ideas in development can mean ideas that will never be realized. And of course, while in development, ideas always retain their potential, but the means to an end are never without consequence. The artists participating in the inaugural Okayama Art Summit employ tactics of withdrawal and resistance to challenge the cultural dominance of “ideas in development.” They work around conventional production strategies by demonstrating refusal or running ahead of us. Some works suspend development while others reflect back on the conditions of their own production and reception within an accelerating context of communication and exchange.

Preview: Saturday, October 8, 10am–5pm
Registration desk: Korakukan Tenjin School
9-24 Tenjincho, Kita-ku, Okayama City, 700-0814

Press conference: Saturday, October 8, 4–4:45pm
Venue: Okayama Orient Museum
9-31 Tenjin-cho, Okayama, 700-0814
Language: Japanese

Venues
Korakukan Tenjin School, Tenjinyama Cultural Plaza of Okayama Prefecture, Okayama Orient Museum, Former Fukuoka Soy Sauce Factory, Cinema Clair Marunouchi, Hayashibara Museum of Art, Okayama Castle, Okayama Prefectural Government Offices Area, and other locations in Okayama

*Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster screening at Cinema Clair Marunouchi daily at 12:15–1:45pm

Artists:
Yu Araki, Trisha Baga, Noah Barker, Robert Barry, Anna Blessmann and Peter Saville, Angela Bulloch, José León Cerrillo, Michael Craig Martin, Peter Fischli David Weiss, Simon Fujiwara, Ryan Gander, Liam Gillick, Melanie Gilligan, Rochelle Goldberg, Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster, Pierre Huyghe, Joan Jonas, Tatsuo Majima, Katja Novitskova, Ahmet Öğüt, Jorge Pardo, Philippe Parreno, Rachel Rose, Cameron Rowland, Shimabuku, Motoyuki Shitamichi, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Anton Vidokle, Hannah Weinberger, Lawrence Weiner, Anicka Yi

Catalogue edited by Annie Godfrey Larmon

Texts by
Liam Gillick
Dawn Chan
Micah Silver
Ingrid Burrington
Bernard Stiegler
Fredric Jameson

Organizer: Okayama Art Summit Executive Committee

Contact us
General inquiries: info [​at​] okayamaartsummit.jp
Press inquiries: press [​at​] okayamaartsummit.jp