ROUNDTABLE

The first decades of the 21st century saw a tremendous expansion of contemporary art infrastructure around the world, with new museums and biennale-type exhibitions seemingly launching in one city after another and artists and art professionals moving fluidly across borders to enroll in academic programs, produce and exhibit work, take up posts, or join residencies. But events including the Covid-19 pandemic, austerity measures to reduce public funding for cultural activities, and the resurgence of isolationist political movements have clouded the picture of contemporary art as a global discursive field. How can exhibition makers and art administrators continue to maintain an international outlook while serving the needs of local communities at a time of creeping reaction against the progressive values that contemporary art has typically been seen to champion?

The theme for the AWT Talks Roundtable 2025, “Who Is Your Audience?,” operates on three levels. First, it asks the roundtable participants to take stock of the people who use their institutions, from physical visitors to those engaging on digital platforms and community stakeholders: How do these audiences shape art programming? Second, it asks the participants to reflect on their experiences working across diverse geographies and cultures: How have encounters with different audience expectations helped them grow as curators? And third, it asks the participants to look toward an imaginary horizon: To whom do they see their exhibitions speaking, and how can exhibition makers accommodate audiences they never imagined before?

Featured panelists Shihoko Iida, Ryan Inouye, and Rasha Salti bring with them a wealth of experience working at international institutions and they are also currently at work on major international exhibitions: Iida is the head of curatorial for the Aichi Triennale 2025, which opened on September 13 and is on view through November 30; Inouye is a co-curator of the 59th Carnegie International, which opens in Pittsburgh in May 2026 and continues through January 2027; and Salti is a curatorial advisor of the 61st Venice Biennale, which opens May 2026 and continues through November 2026.

The AWT Talks Roundtable is organized by Andrew Maerkle and Yuko Shiomi for Art Week Tokyo in conjunction with the Keio University Art Center and Keio Museum Commons.

PANELISTS

SHIHOKO IIDA

Head of Curatorial, Aichi Triennale 2025

Shihoko Iida is Head of Curatorial for the Aichi Triennale 2025. She was previously Chief Curator of the Aichi Triennale’s 2019 and 2022 editions and worked as a curator on the 2013 edition. From 2009 to 2011 she was Visiting Curator at ACAPA, a research institute within the Queensland Art Gallery | Gallery of Modern Art, Brisbane. Prior to then she was Curator at the Tokyo Opera City Art Gallery, which she joined as an assistant curator in 1998. Iida has cocurated exhibitions in Jakarta, Milan, New Delhi, Seoul, and cities across Australia. She has also contributed as a curator to international exhibitions including the 15th Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh in 2012 and the Sapporo International Art Festival in 2014. From 2014 to 2018 she was Associate Professor at Tokyo University of the Arts.

PROFILE

RYAN INOUYE

Kathe and Jim Patrinos Co-Curator, 59th Carnegie International, and Curator, International Art, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh

Ryan Inouye is the Kathe and Jim Patrinos Co-curator of the 59th Carnegie International and Curator, International Art, at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, where he also served as Associate Curator of the 58th Carnegie International (2022–23). Previously he was Senior Curator at the Sharjah Art Foundation (2017–21), where he curated solo and group exhibitions of international artists and co-organized the 2018 edition of March Meeting. Inouye was Associate Curator of Sharjah Biennial 12 (2014–15) and has held curatorial positions at the New Museum, New York, focusing on the 2012 New Museum Triennial and the Museum as Hub initiative, and at REDCAT, Los Angeles. He earned an MRes in Curatorial/Knowledge from Goldsmiths, University of London, and a BA in English Literature from the University of California, Los Angeles.

PROFILE

RASHA SALTI

Researcher, writer and curator, and Advisor to the Artistic Director, 61st Venice Biennale

Rasha Salti is a researcher, writer, and curator of art and film based in Marseille. Together with Kristine Khouri she cocurated the documentary and archival exhibition “Past Disquiet,” which traveled internationally for a decade from the Museum of Contemporary Art of Barcelona (2015) to Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2016); the Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende, Santiago (2018); the Sursock Museum, Beirut (2018); the Zeitz Museum of Contemporary Art Africa, Cape Town (2023); Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2024); and Framer Framed, Amsterdam (2025). In 2022 Salti was a cocurator of the 8th Triennial of Photography, Hamburg, and was a member of the artistic team of the 12th Berlin Biennale. She is presently part of the curatorial team led by the late Koyo Kouoh for the 61st Venice Biennale, which opens in 2026.

PROFILE

MODERATORS

The AWT Talks Roundtable is moderated by Andrew Maerkle, Editorial Director, Art Week Tokyo, and Aki Hoashi, Deputy Executive Director, Organizing Committee for Yokohama Triennale Office, and Manager, International Division & Curatorial Department, Yokohama Museum of Art.

ADMISSION

The AWT Talks Roundtable is a closed-door event for established curators and art administrators. All slots for this year’s roundtable have already been filled. If you are a curator or senior art administrator and are interested in attending a future edition of the roundtable, write to info@artweektokyo.com with the subject line “AWT Talks Roundtable” and a brief outline of your activities.