Artec Biennale

Artec Biennale is held in Nagoya since 1989.

The first annual international Artec was hosted at the 1989 International World Design Exposition in Nagoya. Twenty-six artists were exhibiting, including Jacov Agam, Ed Emshwiller, Catherine Ikam, Tatsuo Miyajima, Toshio Iwai and Jeffrey Shaw & Dick Groeneveld. At the same time Frank Popper, Otto Piene, Jasia Reichardt, Vittorio Fagone and others participated in lectures and symposia. Artec continued on a biennial basis, becoming a critical international event for the fields of Art & Technology and Media Art. From the second Artec onward, it comprised an invitees division and a competitive division, with the competition becoming a venue in which young artists could establish international names for themselves. Artec also had a profound effect on the art community within Japan as well, with new curricula and faculties being developed at art schools, and some new universities as well.