“Wild Grass: Our Lives”ー 8th Yokohama Triennale Scheduled for March 2024

Seeking hope by understanding the causes of challenging times

Since its founding in 2001, the Yokohama Triennale has explored the relationship between Japan and the world, the individual and society, and re-examined the social role of art from various perspectives in response to a constantly changing world. The 8th Yokohama Triennale (Yokohama Triennale 2023) is scheduled to run from March 15 to June 9, 2024, under the theme “Wild Grass: Our Lives.”

The Yokohama Triennale welcomed its first non-Japanese artistic director for its 7th edition in 2020. For the 8th edition, the festival welcomes Beijing-based Liu Ding and Carol Yinghua Lu as artistic directors to create an international experience that embraces the role of Yokohama port city as a crossroads of people and cultures.

The title “Wild Grass: Our Lives” comes from Chinese writer Lu Xun’s (1881-1936) anthology Wild Grass, written between 1924-1926, a turbulent period in Chinese history. The exhibition theme draws on Lu Xun’s philosophy of the universe and life - it symbolizes a vital force that is unregulated, irrepressible, defiant, self-motivated, and always prepared to fight alone. The festival aims to revisit several historical moments, events, figures, and trends of thought since the beginning of the 20th century. Inspired by the anarchist practices and ideas that emerged since the proposal of the end of history, the 8th edition of Yokohama Triennale seeks to explore options for a possible dialogue between individuals and established rules and institutions.

Historical sites as additional venues

For “Wild Grass: Our Lives,” two additional venues will join the Yokohama Museum of Art: the Former Daiichi Bank Yokohama Branch, completed in 1929, and the Former Yokohama Raw Silk Inspection Bureau Warehouse (now KITANAKA BRICK & WHITE), completed in 1926, which also houses the alternative art space BankART KAIKO. While the Yokohama Museum of Art opened in 1989, a year that marked the end of the Cold War, the additional venues were built in the same period as Lu Xun’s Wild Grass. Thus, the 8th Yokohama Triennale will use the city’s historical legacies as a stage to explore contemporary issues.

In addition to the leading exhibition, a variety of partnership programs will be held in collaboration with various facilities located in the area from Yokohama Station to Motomachi/China Town and the Yamate district, providing visitors with the opportunity to experience cutting-edge art alongside the hidden gems of the city.