NEW ZEALAND.- An explosive art work made from 10,000 tom thumb firecrackers, a stunning three screen film projection inspired by the first black person to reach the North Pole, a 4m by 4m carpet made from 150 kg of beans, corn and rice, an artist’s journey from India to New Zealand entirely by public transport, a competition to design a Chinatown on Auckland’s waterfront, a witty and chilling performance on the bombings of Beirut, these are just some of the works featured in New Zealand’s premier international contemporary art exhibition, opening tonight.

Across five central city venues, turbulence: the 3rd Auckland Triennial presents over 35 artists from more than 20 countries who engage with the turbulent times in which we live. Melbourne-based curator Victoria Lynn brings a wealth of experience to the exhibition. A selector for Queensland’s Asia Pacific Triennial, she was Australian Commissioner for the 2003 Venice Biennale and recently curated the inaugural biennial for Melbourne’s Tarrawarra Museum of Art.

Lynn says we live in complex and unpredictable times. “These artists engage with the emotional flux of their daily reality, responding to the ambient hopes and fears in our midst. They create aesthetic interventions - active, vital and alternative ways of looking at the world around us,” she says. “turbulence includes stories of ancestry and exile; journeys through literal and imagined spaces and reflections upon the fragility of existence and humanity’s capacity for resistance and resilience.”

Auckland Art Gallery director Chris Saines says the Auckland Triennial gives the public access to some of the world’s most innovative new art without leaving the country.

“The Triennial provides a window onto the world of contemporary art, creating a dialogue between local artists and their global counterparts,” he says.

The opening weekend includes a keynote lecture by prominent Cuban curator and 2006 Liverpool Biennial co-curator Gerardo Mosquera, and a must-see performance by The Atlas Group/Walid Raad (Lebanon/USA).