"9th Yokohama Triennale" Title Announced: "Where the Whale Sleeps, Tidings from the Dragon's Palace" — Yokohama Museum of Art Envisioned as a Giant Whale
The 9th Yokohama Triennale, opening in 2027, unveils its title "Where the Whale Sleeps, Tidings from the Dragon's Palace," envisioning the Yokohama Museum of Art as a giant whale.Summary
The 9th Yokohama Triennale, scheduled from April 23 to September 12, 2027, at the Yokohama Museum of Art, has announced its title, "Where the Whale Sleeps, Tidings from the Dragon's Palace," along with its concept and key visual. The artistic directors are Cosmin Costinas and Inti Guerrero.
The exhibition draws on two deep-sea motifs: the oarfish (ryugunotsukai), a deep-sea fish said to herald disasters, and "whale fall," the phenomenon in which a sunken whale carcass sustains new ecosystems for generations. The museum will be envisioned as a giant whale's body, inviting viewers to confront a world that appears to be sinking amid various crises while exploring works that seek signs of hope budding in the abyss.
Costinas and Guerrero conceive the exhibition around the "port" as a site where cultures, intentions, and narratives intersect, linking today's global communication networks—supported by deep-sea cables—to the telegraph networks established during Yokohama's port-opening era and earlier histories of international exchange. Their statement likens contemporary anxieties to a "monster" that devours humanity and its world, proposing to eat and digest this monster to overcome fear and reverse the narrative of disaster. The key visual, designed by Berlin-based Studio YUKIKO, expresses whale fall through spiral undulations and depicts the "Y" of the Triennale logo as a fossil—a trace left for the future.
(Source：Tokyo Art Beat)