The Asia-Pacific Triennial of Contemporary Art was initiated by the Queensland Art Gallery in Brisbane, Australia in 1993. Since then every three years it has provided an international forum for art from Australia, India, the Phillipines, Singapore, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, China, Japan, Taiwan, Vietnam, New Zealand, South Korea, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Papua New Guinea.

The Triennial is not just an exhibition but also a cultural event embracing a scholarly symposium, a catalogue, an active forum for artists and academics, performances and social evenings. The Triennial plays an important role not only in expanding a cross Asian and Pacific cultural dialogue but in also giving the diverse, artistic practises a greater critical profile beyond the region.

The APT as it is commonly referred to not only displays exciting art from the region, but heralds the dawn of the `Asia-Pacific Art Age' and that Euro-Americentric perspectivesare not necessarily valid formula for evaluating the art of the region. The approach of western art critics that the modern and contemporary art of the region is merely derivative of western art seems to be "relegated to the dustbin of history".

The works of art brought together for the Triennial are as diverse and fascinating as the backgrounds of the artists who created them. Together they convey a powerful impression of the region's contemporary visual art.

Doug Hall, the director of the Queensland Art Gallery says it well, "The Triennials have also altered suspicious minds: those who appeared to suggest that an international voice was the privilege of the West now recognise the importance and value of contemporary Asian and Pacific art and the inevitability of its becoming an inseparable part of an international cultural engagement." Many of the artists represented in the three Triennials have an international reputation, and for some at least, the Triennial has played a part in bringing their work toworld attention.

APT has never been a government to government project about official exchanges and artists are not usually chosen to `represent' a country.

Rather, invitations are extended to them to participate as individuals and this has meant that they can at times express their ideas in ways that are not possible in official exhibitions. There are themes which artists in many of these countries look at as important issues of our times, although they may treat them in different ways in art. Among these are environmental and ecological issues, the issues of participation and democracy, the issue of women in society and important issues relating to religion and spirituality.

Perhaps the most conspicuous feature of the art is its rejection of a hierarchical internationalism in art.

`Asia-Pacific' does not refer to any perceived homogeneity among the countries of the region but is used in a purely geographical sense. There is no collective Asian identity, let alone a Asia-Pacific identity.

Nevertheless this part of the world is of growing global importance whether seen from a strategic, political, social or cultural perspective. The key factor that does emerge from the region is a sense of dynamic change.

Culture contacts were once limited to a few members of the elite. Today, the modern world has made people aware of similarities and differences to an extent never dreamed of in the past. We are continually being introduced to other people's values through print and electronic media, magazines and books or through travel and tourism.

The philosophy of the Triennial is to see the artist as intermediary between the object and a range of experiences and values, cultural, political or spiritual to each of the societies in which the artists work. The Triennial shows the art of Asia as dynamic, relevant and powerful, and that regardless of any views the West might have of its own importance the arts of Asia are regionally specific yet express concerns with international relevance andcontext.