Giving BAC – How QAGOMA brings the Asia Pacific Triennial to Brisbane

Every three years, the walls of Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art (QAGOMA) come to life with its flagship exhibition series, The Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art.

Save the date because 30 November 2024 heralds the eleventh iteration of the series/of the Triennial with seventy artists, collectives and projects from more than thirty countries expected to display.

Since its inception in 1993, collectively, over four million visitors have wandered through the galleries taking in the thousands of artworks that celebrate the Asia Pacific Region.

Brisbane Airport is proudly sponsoring the Triennial, an exhibition famous for celebrating the region’s social and cultural diversity through art and cultural expression.

To understand what goes into curating one of the world’s most significant collections and displays of Asian and Pacific art, who better to sit down with than Tarun Nagesh, the Gallery’s Curatorial Manager of Asian and Pacific Art.

“As a curator, I love seeing audiences engage with the art and share stories and share culture from around the region. There’s lots to be learnt from the cultures around us”, Tarun says.

“This exhibition gives an amazing opportunity to bring artists and aspects of culture to Brisbane from parts of the world we don’t always see.”

Having worked as part of the curatorial team for the Asia Pacific Triennial for more than ten years, Tarun is excited for the upcoming display which will see over 500 works on display across the QAGOMA precinct.

“It’s so great to see an opportunity to showcase a great diversity of stories and cultures here in Queensland. It’s so rewarding to see groups come through and experience art or culture that they may have a connection to, and for others to share.”

“It’s an incredible platform for cultural exchange across Asia and Pacific region,” he said.

The QAGOMA curatorial team have been working tirelessly on the exhibition for the past three years, with works already underway for the 12th instalment, which will be happening in three years’ time.

Brisbane Airport’s involvement with the Triennial is more than just a sponsor—but a gateway year-round for the movement of art in and out of the country.

The transport logistics of the Triennial are one of the most significant though, with international works all needing to either be air or sea freighted, packed, moved and treated through quarantine.

If you’ve been there, done that, ticked previous Triennial’s off your list, we asked Tarun if there was more to expect from the eleventh edition?

“Each curation is totally different and there’s always so much to discover, with new artists and art installed in places you didn’t expect,” he said.

“This years’ Triennial will feel particularly different as the last one was held during the height of Covid.”

“A lot of the artworks in this exhibition reflect the past three years, and some of the bigger social changes we’ve seen. Expect lots of rich reflections about the world around us. Some ideas that re-emerged are a strong sense of our relationship with the environment and caring for it”, Tarun explains.

We asked Tarun to pick a favourite amongst the artworks on display which range from small scale objects to enormous installations. Naturally, like picking a favourite child, he couldn’t.

He did explain there are a few exciting projects to put on your must-see list.

“You’ll definitely want to see the works from Haus Yuriyal and Brett Graham—they are transforming the space”, Tarun advises.

Across the duration of the exhibition, somewhere between half a million to three quarters of a million people are expected to see the exhibition, which is an incredible celebration of arts and culture when you consider Brisbane’s entire population is 2.28 million.

In understanding the role Brisbane Airport plays with QAGOMA, Tarun said “sponsorships are so important to events like this and play a part in acknowledging every artist who comes here to exhibit”.

From an art perspective, “For our travelling artists, Brisbane Airport is the very first place they see local art, which is so important.”

“Without Brisbane Airport and our other sponsors, we wouldn’t have been able to build the support of and reputation of the event over time,” Tarun said.

CREDITS

• Feature image: A view of works by artist collective Haus Yuriyal (Papua New Guinea, est. 2015), including: (l-r) Kuman (shield) paintings; Bopa (carved tree fern sculptures, foreground); the Kamkau Ike (Haus toktok) structure and Yuri Alai Eagles (ceiling shield paintings), all 2024; and works from the ‘Garpa/Ground paintings’ series 2023 (back wall) / Installed in the Kenneth and Yasuko Myer Gallery (Gallery 3) for ‘The 11th Asia Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art’, QAG, September 2024 / Courtesy: The artists and Milani Gallery, Meanjin/Brisbane / © Haus Yuriyal / Photograph: C Callistemon, © QAGOMA
• Read more: Brisbane Airport is delighted to have long-standing partnerships with many local, not-for-profit art organisations that make Brisbane a better place to live and a more attractive tourism destination to visit. Find out more about these partnerships here.
• Save the date: see the Asia Pacific Triennial at QAGOMA 30 November 2024 - 27 April 2025