Meet our new Board Member: Shihoko Iida

Shihoko Iida, IBA Board Member. Photo credit ToLoLo Studio

Shihoko Iida

Head of Curatorial, Aichi Triennale Organizing Committee

We are delighted to welcome Shihoko Iida as one of the newest members of the International Biennial Association (IBA) board. Elected at our recent 11th General Assembly in Lyon, Shihoko brings with her a wealth of experience and insight from her role as Head of Curatorial for the Aichi Triennale, one of Japan’s most interesting contemporary art biennials.

Shihoko’s interest in biennials began in 2012 at the World Biennial Forum in Gwangju, where she first encountered the richness and diversity of this global network. In occasion of her election she shared the following statement:

“It is a great opportunity to participate in this large community. The first time I got to know this network was back in 2012 in Gwangju at the World Biennial Forum, at the time when I was working at the second edition of the Aichi Triennial which was a great eye-opening experience to know that there are many diverse and different biennials and triennials happening all around the world. The presence of this network has supported and helped me especially when we were going through the heavy political controversy around our fourth edition in Aichi in 2019. So, I thought it was time to contribute from my perspective to this larger community by sharing my experiences and by thinking (with all of you) of how to make these institutions sustainable.”

Shihoko Iida was born in Tokyo. She is an independent curator based in Nagoya. Iida worked as Curator at Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery for eleven years, starting as Assistant Curator in 1998 when it was preparing for opening. Major curated exhibitions at TOCAG include Wolfgang Tillmans: Freischwimmer (2004), Trace Elements: Spirit and Memory in Japanese and Australian Photomedia (TOCAG, 2008/Performance Space, Sydney, 2009) and others. From 2009 to 2011 Iida was Visiting Curator at the Australian Centre of Asia Pacific Art (ACAPA), a research institute within the Queensland Art Gallery/Gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane, Australia, researching the developmental trajectory of APT and working on APT6 and partly on APT7. She stayed in Seoul as 2011 International Fellowship Researcher, hosted by National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea.

Drawing from her interest in co-curation, contemporary art in Asia, and the relationship between society and art institutions such as art museums and biennials, Iida worked on co-curated exhibitions in Seoul, New Delhi, Jakarta, multiple cities in Australia and Milan, while worked on a string of international exhibitions, including The 15th Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh 2012 (official curator of Japan participation); Aichi Triennale 2013; Sapporo International Art Festival 2014 as Curator, and served as Chief Curator (Head of Curatorial Team) of Aichi Triennale 2019 and Aichi Triennale 2022. Between the years of 2014 to 2018, she was Associate Professor at the Tokyo University of the Arts. Iida is a member of CIMAM (2015-), IBA (2017-), AICA International (2017-), and committee member for Sapporo International Art Festival (2015-). Currently, Iida has been working for Aichi Triennale 2025 as Head of Curatorial.