"The morning before this year's Aichi Triennale officially opened, I was unexpectedly caught in what meteorologists later declared the most ferocious thunderstorm to strike Tokyo all summer. The trains ceased operation in near unison-first my local commuter line, then the entire Tokaido Shinkansen. Having endured another of Tokyo's "hottest summers on record" (a refrain that seems to repeat every year), I stood under the flickering departure board at the Tokyo Station Shinkansen gate, watching delayed announcements as they came in."
"Prominently featured on the Triennale website, as well as in other printed materials, is an illustration, designed by manga artist Daisuke Igarashi, featuring a young girl standing atop a skull of what appears to be some kind of ancient behemoth. Like Alice in her Wonderland, the character tilts her head upward, her gaze fixed upon a rose in full bloom while chimerical beasts populate the landscape around her."
A record thunderstorm halted Tokyo trains and underscored a longing for escape amid relentless summer heat and new parental responsibilities. The 2025 Aichi Triennale takes its title from Adonis's 1971 poem collection, invoking escape and aftermath. Imagery by Daisuke Igarashi presents a young girl atop an ancient skull, her gaze fixed on a rose while chimerical beasts populate the landscape, creating an allegory of wonder and peril. The Triennale centers on futurity informed by geological views of time rather than immediate national or territorial perspectives, aiming to illuminate contemporary human-environment divides while remaining deliberately grounded.
Read at Artforum
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