Who do you have in mind when you say “we”?
Saitama is a typically Japanese “city for living.” It is constantly sending its residents into the nation’s capital, only to welcome them back; it is a city that observes its people from up close, quietly from the side; how they continue to push toward the epicenter in their obsessive pursuit for sustained development. Distanced from the assertive stance of a definite “subject,” what lingers here is a landscape of vague sensibilities. The appeal of this region is more diverse than words can possibly describe, and trying to pin it down brings along a feeling of unequivocal loss. A faint resistance against people’s “unawareness,” shrouded in the secrecy of everyday life without ever manifesting itself: we embrace the opportunity for us to take a step back from this reality, in which we began to partake even before we knew it, and for me to continue to be the “I.”
We see through our own eyes—the art festival, the city, and the world—once again from the objective ground that is Saitama. From climate change, to social disparity, division, and wars, the issues faced by contemporary society cannot be factored without addressing our own complicity in them. How, in this day and age, can we define the world around us as an extension of the “I”? We present this festival from the vantage point of Saitama as an opportunity for taking a new look at the “We.”
Contemporary art team 目 [mé]
(Saitama Triennale 2023, Direction)
Saitama Triennale is an art festival that is held once every three years in Saitama City. Since holding the first edition in 2016, together with artists from Japan and abroad, the festival has expanded according to the idea to revitalize the region and enhance its appeal by means of art, with the ultimate goal to establish Saitama as a city of art and culture. As a festival for the local people to “partake and create together,” offering opportunities for exchange between citizens and citizens, citizens and artists, and artists and the local community, Saitama Triennale takes place at multiple locations in Saitama City.
Saitama Triennale 2023
“We”
Saturday, October 7 – Sunday, December 10, 2023
Main venue: Former Omiya Civic Hall
15-minute walk from Saitama-Shintoshin Station / Approx. 15-minute walk from Omiya Station
In addition to the main venue, related projects take place at various cultural facilities and other locations in the streets of Saitama City.
Saitama Triennale Executive Committee
SERIZAWA Takashi (Executive director of P3 art and environment)
Contemporary art team 目 [mé]
MATSUNAGA Ko, ASAMI Shunya, IIJIMA Koji
TAKADA Yui (Allright Graphics)