Announcement of the Theme and Concept, Initial Selection of Participating Artists (contemporary art), Curatorial Team and Programs for Aichi Triennale 2025

Adrián Villar Rojas, Mi familia muerta (My Dead Family), 2009. Photo by Carla Barbero.

Aichi Triennale 2025
A Time Between Ashes and Roses
September 13, 2025 – November 30, 2025
https://aichitriennale.jp/en/

Aichi Triennale Announces Theme and Curatorial Team for
A Time Between Ashes and Roses
The Sixth Edition of the Acclaimed Arts and Culture Festival
Opens September 13, 2025

Aichi Triennale is pleased to announce the theme for its sixth edition, A Time Between Ashes and Roses, on view from September 13, 2025 to November 30, 2025. The 2025 festival and curatorial theme is organized by Artistic Director Hoor Al Qasimi and reflects upon fluctuating states and connections that exist between ecological environments, human activity, and the narratives and theories that unite them.

The Theme
A Time Between Ashes and Roses

Concept（abridged edition）
​​​This triennial departs from Adonis’ poem A Time Between Ashes and Roses. Echoing its sentiments and visions, this exhibit brings together a futurity empowered by geologic time views rather than immediate and national or territorial perspectives which illuminate contemporary human-environment divides. The apocalyptic and optimistic extremes are decentered in this triennial and the interlayered complexities of environmental justice are addressed so that the bearing of responsibility and realisation of complicity is illuminated. The triennial emphasises the shades and expression in between destruction and blossoming as well as the entanglement of the human and environment.

Inviting artists and collectives from all over the world, the works will present existing and unknown narratives about the environment in which we occur. The curatorial mission and artist works expand upon the triennial’s locality and unearth environmental narratives inspired by ceramic and Setomono production. Since the industries are a source of local pride, they support the triennial’s framework which explores alternative and experimental forms for modelling the human-environment relationship. In Aichi’s industrial history, the ashy black skies from the production of ceramics signified prosperity rather than pollution and destruction. Do such local industries and heritage pave way for nuanced thinking about the human-environment entanglement? A Time between Ashes and Roses is a traversal which adopts the spectral and in between, so that assumed positionalities and hierarchies come undone.

Aichi Triennale 2025, Artistic Director
Hoor Al Qasimi

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Initial Selection of Participating Artists (contemporary art)

[Participating Artists]-4 artists as of February 1, 2024, in alphabetical order – Artist Name [Place of Birth | Activity Base]

Dala Nasser [ Lebanon | Lebanon ]
Ogawa Machiko [ Japan ]
Oki Junko [ Japan ]
Adrián Villar Rojas [ Argentina| Argentina ]

View Artist Biographies

Curatorial Team

Artistic Director, Hoor Al Qasimi announced Curatorial Team for Aichi Triennale 2025

Head of Curatorial​: Iida Shihoko［Independent Curator］
Curator（Contemporary Art）​: Irizawa Masaaki ［Curator, Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum］

Curator（Performing Arts）​: Nakamura Akane［Performing Arts Producer］
Curator（Learning）​: Tsuji Takuma［Architect］
Curatorial Adviser​:
Ishikura Toshiaki［Anthropologist / Associate Professor, Department of Arts & Roots, Akita Public Art University］
Cho Sunhye［Curator, Fukuoka Asian Art Museum

Programs

Contemporary Art
Global contemporary art will be introduced through exhibitions and digital programs.
Exhibitions will mainly take place at Aichi Arts Center which includes Aichi Prefectural Museum of Art, Aichi Prefectural Ceramic Museum, Seto City, and other locations throughout the prefecture.

Performing Arts
Innovative and ground-breaking theater and dance from around the world will be presented at Aichi Arts Center and other venues.

Learning
Learning opportunities for a wide range of audiences.

Collaborative Programs
Collaborative projects with a variety of organizations including art universities within Aichi.
Pop-up traveling exhibitions consist of works by Aichi Triennale 2025 participant artists at a number of sites within Aichi.

Aichi Triennale

Presented every three years since its first edition in 2010, the Aichi Triennale is the preeminent global arts and culture festival in Japan. From its inception, the triennale has welcomed local and international artists, curators and cultural leaders to produce experiences fusing the visual and performing arts, learning components and community. In addition to the prefectural capital Nagoya city, the Aichi Triennale shares the overall region’s historical traditions with the rest of the world across museums, theaters, and various venues by way of an exhibition that highlights and celebrates transcendent contemporary art practices.

With every edition, the triennale collaborates with different cities throughout Aichi to platform innovative approaches to art-making and performance, integrating and expressing curatorial themes through each region’s distinct historic sites, institutions and environments. At its core, the arts festival finds balance between the global and local communities through its rigorous examination and critical eye on our shared present. Each year, participating artists and collectives continue Aichi Triennale’s founding mission of presenting cutting-edge art that fosters spirited cultural exchange and innovative contributions to contemporary visual and performing arts.

As a complement to its creative programming, the Aichi Triennale also curates learning components organized by a dedicated team to ensure cross-cultural learning and engagement. Extensive educational aspects of each edition connect students of all ages with instructors to meaningfully engage with art through dialogue, material practice and community-building. Serving as a festive moment where art and communities intersect, the triennale generates new possibilities of expression that welcome and challenge the most pressing conversations of our times. As a whole, Aichi Triennale extends beyond the conventional limits of the festival format to honor the shared affinities between artists and viewers alike.

Press Contact: press@aichitriennale.jp