ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the phenomenal growth of biennales and triennales in Asia, where such exhibitions have often been critical sites for reflecting on historical and societal change and have led to the formation of new local and regional art histories. Through a series of case studies from Japan, China, South Korea, Indonesia, and Australia, the chapter analyses the complex local contexts and histories of individual exhibitions. The Asian biennale/triennale phenomenon is not, I argue, simply the result of globalization and new interest from Europe and North America in Asian art but also of active artistic, intellectual, and curatorial activity in Asia itself, which is affecting the course and direction of global art in the twenty-first century.
