EXHIBITIONS/EVENTS

This series of annual exhibitions planned over a three year period was initiated in 2003, making this year the event's third and final year. The first year's theme was decided by France, the second year by China, and this year the Japanese contingent from The Tokyo National University of Fine Arts and Music has selected the theme "What's Left, What's Lost." The common format of poster art was chosen, with each school submitting around ten works for a total of 40 artworks.

"All three schools share a common base in that they include comprehensive skills testing as a part of school entrance examination practices, in addition to being a part of the national design education system in each country. Our goal is to look beyond the social and contextual differences and stimulate each other through comparison and assessment. In this era, when the Internet has become such a large part of our daily lives, we strive to reach new horizons in the way design is viewed." With these shared ideas in mind, the project has been moving ahead steadily since last autumn. We are also proud to announce that this year's event will feature a moving image division including 13 works from the students of The Surrey Institute of Art & Design.

We hope that the experience we have gained as a result of this program will help all parties involved to continue deepening their exchange with and understanding of other countries via a wide variety of expressive forms. As the direct physical cultural exchange of students and faculty was not a prerequisite, the common theme of the Internet drives the exchange forward. We view the project as a significant experiment that will potentially offer important lessons in the future of cultural exchange.

The artwork will be on near-simultaneous display in each country.