Conceived by artistic directors Cosmin Costinaș and Inti Guerrero, the 2027 Yokahama Triennale will be titled Whalefall: News and Rumours from the Ocean Floor. The exhibition will take place from 23 April to 12 September at the Yokohama Museum of Art.
This edition’s theme builds on two ocean creatures and phenomena: the oarfish, a deep sea creature whose infrequent rise to the surface has long been interpreted in Japan as a foretelling of disasters; and the whale who, when it dies, sinks to the ocean floor and nourishes an entire ecosystem. The Triennale will take these aquatic occurrences as its central metaphor. Following the idea of the news and rumours carried by the oarfish, the exhibition will consider a series of ocean-based episodes in the history of communication, from the rumours circulated by seafaring missionaries to the undersea cables that power the modern internet. Via a specifically-commissioned architectural intervention by Tange Kenzō, the Yokohama Museum of Art will become the body of a whale, inviting viewers to imagine how new worlds emerge from the ocean floor.
