Wild Grass: Our Lives

The Organizing Committee for Yokohama Triennale is pleased to announce the theme and concept for the 8th Yokohama Triennale as follows.

8th Yokohama Triennale Wild Grass: Our Lives
Liu Ding & Carol Yinghua Lu, Artistic Directors

Wild Grass: Our Lives, the title for the 8th Yokohama Triennale speaks of humble humanism, courage, resilience, faith, and solidarity. This title is taken from the Chinese writer Lu Xun’s (1881–1936) anthology Wild Grass, penned from 1924 to 1926, during a turbulent period in Chinese history. Its 23 essays portrayed the personal and social realities that confronted him. For Lu Xun, the greatest sense of crisis and defeat came from the 1911 Xinhai Revolution. It overthrew the Qing government, which represented the old order. Yet the new order that formed in its place did not bring about fundamental changes to society. He soon embraced the idea of taking despair, instead of hope, as the starting point for his life, work and thoughts. He fully accepted the fact that there would be no more hope or ambition, only darkness, darkness. At the same time, he devoted himself to finding an outlet in this complete darkness. In 20th-century China, Lu Xun was a singularly solitary individual who constantly rebelled against existing situations and simultaneously a thinker who stayed attentive to the movements of the world, contemplating the fate of individuals and humanity within them.

Wild Grass evokes the image of a fragile and defenseless existence, inconspicuous and alone, in the wilderness, within nothing to fall back on. It is also a symbol of a life force that’s unregulated, irrepressible, defiant, self-motivated, and prepared to fight alone at all times. Furthermore, there is no ultimate state of existence to arrive at. Every state of being is a mediation and a process in itself, where there is no victory or failure but only a perpetual state of internal movement. Thus, every state of being is potentially a messenger for each other, mediating for each other. These philosophical propositions are not abstract; they exist vividly in the world of experience, and are the experiences themselves. Wild Grass: Our Lives, signifies a philosophy of life that elevates the irrepressible force of individual life to a respectable existence that transcends all systems, rules, regulations, and forms of control and power. It is a model for flexible expression of subjectivity.

The rapid global spread of COVID-19 has led us to reflect on the irreconcilable contradictions of the globalization process. Geopolitical, economic and social dysfunctions are intertwined in the pandemic. These interlocking debacles highlight the contradictions between old languages and new historical conditions, rooted in the political and social constructs and invention of the 20th century. The contemporary world order came into being after the decline of socialist institutions and the end of the Cold War. Due to the constant division and solidification of social classes brought about by unfair distribution systems and the economic monopoly of oligarchies, individual lives cannot find their corresponding expressions at the political level. We long to escape our current predicament but have found ourselves trapped by the logic and structural suppression of our current social organizations. This experience has revealed not only the fragility of human existence but also exposed the limitations of the 20th-century design of political and social institutions.

The mix of political hegemony, escalating ideological competition and clashes of civilizations exerts an ongoing corrosive and destructive effect on the well-being of the contemporary world. The space for individual existence has been severely compromised and overwhelmed. The fight for equality and democracy remains relevant and even more urgent today. It is, therefore, a principle of ethics to reaffirm the meaning of the individual in the depth of history, as opposed to the history of the successful and powerful, and in contemporary society. Research around ordinary people and their lives can provide a stable and solid structure in the face of the complexities and challenges of constant change. We propose a modest imaginary where we are all outsiders living in the cracks, often stealthily dismantling the systems that are killing us.

In the Triennale, we will revisit a selection of historical moments, events, figures, and trends of thoughts throughout the 20th century. Some examples include the resonance of Japanese and Chinese left-wing woodcut movements in the early 1930s, the rise of subjective imaginary in the postwar cultural construction in East Asia, the reflection on modernity after the global radical movements of the late 1960s, and the emancipatory energy of postmodernism in the 1980s. We draw inspirations from anarchist practices and thoughts that have emerged since the proposal of the end of history, to explore options for possible dialogue between individuals and established rules, institutions. In this Triennale, we prioritize the relationship between art and its intellectual underpinnings, and champion the engagement of art with reality. We hope to generate a new imaginary of global friendship in the name of art, and call for the promising union of the spirit of individual internationalism and weak signals.

8th Yokohama Triennale Wild Grass: Our Lives
Dates: March 15–June 9, 2024 　
Venues: Yokohama Museum of Art, Former Daiichi Bank Yokohama Branch, BankART KAIKO
Organizers: City of Yokohama, Yokohama Arts Foundation, Japan Broadcasting Corporation [NHK], The Asahi Shimbun, Organizing Committee for Yokohama Triennale

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