Which Artists Are Taking Part in the 15th Gwangju Biennale?
Choi Haneyl, Physically: The tower made through our elbows (2023). Stainless steel frame and board, urethane resin, expanded polystyrene, urea resin, silicon, plexiglass board, epoxy resin, bronze pipe, LED, charcoal, graphite powder, synthetic hair. Approx: 180 x 280 x 220cm. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Kim Sangtae.
The Gwangju Biennale Foundation has announced the artists taking part in its 15th biennale, which opens on 7 September.
Among the most established are French artist and filmmaker Philippe Parreno, Marguerite Humeau, and Marina Rheingantz.
Artists from Korea include Gwangju-based Jayi Kim, video artist Hyewon Kwon, and interdisciplinary artist Mimi Park (b.1996).
Among the youngest is Haneyl Choi, who was born in Seoul in 1991 and produces minimalist sculptures and installations exploring the intersections of queer and Korean national identities.
The Biennale, titled Pansori, a soundscape of the 21st century, will tell a story about the spaces we live in, gathering artists whose work reflects our new spatial conditions in the 21st century, and the upheavals of the Anthropocene.
Writer and curator Nicolas Bourriaud will serve as artistic director. His writings on relational aesthetics famously positioned artists as catalysts for social change.
‘The exhibition will address a universal and apparently simple theme, our relation to space,’ Bourriaud said in a statement when his appointment was announced last May. ‘Although it may seem straightforward, this theme will be challenging to explore, because re-drawing or redefining space appears as a common issue between climate change, feminism, post-colonialism, and the future of the planet.’
At the time, Bourriaud’s appointment was somewhat overshadowed by the news that the new Park Seo-bo Prize woul be ‘discontinued’ after protestors at the Biennale denounced it for going against the ‘Gwangju spirit’.
The group objected to the biennale naming the prize after the Dansaekhwa master, who they accused of being silent during decades of oppressive military rule as he painted minimalist, abstract art. Park Seo-Bo offered his thoughts on the abrupt cancellation to Ocula.
The full list of participating artists can be viewed on the Gwangju Biennale’s website. —[O]
Main image: Choi Haneyl, Physically: The tower made through our elbows (2023). Stainless steel frame and board, urethane resin, expanded polystyrene, urea resin, silicon, plexiglass board, epoxy resin, bronze pipe, LED, charcoal, graphite powder, synthetic hair. Approx: 180 x 280 x 220cm. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Kim Sangtae.
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