Semi Permanent Aotearoa 2022

2022 marks the 20th anniversary of Semi Permanent — a demarcation in the evolution of both our purpose and our organisation.  A milestone like this triggers a moment of reflection, imploring us to look back on our achievements and mistakes as the things that helped shape where we are today.  It begs us to look forward, too, challenging us to think about where we might be in another 20 years’ time, or at the least where we hope to be.  After all, the future is a destination we can only get to by acknowledging where we come from and deciding what to bring with us and what to leave behind.

Each year, Semi Permanent takes the opportunity to explore a universal idea that we feel is most relevant to the challenges and opportunities of the time. For 2022, we introduce the platform ‘PERSPECTIVE’ featuring 31 artists and speakers.

After two years in which our lives were disrupted by the pandemic, so too has our perspective on the future completely shifted. The way we look at the world has changed, and with this foresight comes a different approach to engaging with the world around us.

Fittingly, the year marks the 50th anniversary of art critic John Berger’s seminal television series and essay, Ways of Seeing, which exposed the hidden ideologies that exist in visual images, arming generations since with the tools to understand and dissect imagery. At a time when traditional binaries are being dismantled — whether sexual, political, cultural, or creative — the year ahead seems a timely moment to reassess the lens that we place on our past, present, and future, and to make room for new and varied perspectives.