Korea's major art biennales to tie transnational themes to host cities' dynamic histories

Lee Sook-kyung, the artistic director for the 14th edition of the Gwangju Biennale, slated for April 2023 / Courtesy of the Gwangju Biennale Foundation

By Park Han-sol

What is known as the "Gwangju Spirit" is a foundational mindset of Korea's southwestern city historically, which witnessed one of the most tragic events of the modern era, the 1980 Gwangju Uprising.

The Gwangju Biennale, Asia's oldest biennial of contemporary art, has continuously revisited this spirit in both its mission and exhibition themes since its founding in 1995.

To Lee Sook-kyung, the newly appointed artistic director for the 14th edition of the Biennale, the spirit of Gwangju is a rich concept that still leaves plenty of room for constructive redefinition and reinterpretation.

"The city's spirit didn't emerge out of nowhere along with the May 18 pro-democracy movement. Rather, it has been a [deep-rooted] mindset that simply burst out in the form of resistance in the face of extreme adversity in 1980," Lee said at Monday's press conference in central Seoul.

"In fact, the concept can be traced back much further to the ideological and cultural roots inherent to the city."

She emphasized that the Biennale does not aim to narrow its focus to artworks that directly represent Gwangju's history. Instead, the host city's iconic spirit will serve as a transnational framework to bring together a range of contemporary pieces that are intricately connected to different layers of global crises: reckonings with forms of racism, the climate emergency, Indigenous peoples' right to self-determination and the COVID-19 pandemic, among others.

"For instance, during the show, Mexico's Indigenous Mayan artists can unfold their own stories of oppression based on their historical and ideological background… Or a new-generation Arab creator who has memories of the Arab Spring can perhaps discuss the similarities and differences of their experiences to the case of the Gwangju Uprising from four decades ago."

Therefore, the curation of the exhibition will be aimed at connecting the dots and creating dialogues between these geographically and temporally distinct narratives that all explore issues of oppression, resistance and justice, many of which were marginalized and rendered "peripheral" within previous hegemonic cultural frameworks, the director stated.

Such a commitment to steering away from certain dominant Western-centric discourses and examining other transnational, postcolonial narratives has been reflected in Lee's own identity and decades-long practice as the "migrant curator," most recently, as the senior curator of international art at the Tate Modern in London.

Slated for April 7, 2023, the upcoming edition of the Gwangju Biennale will be held for 94 days until July 9, making it the longest run in the event's history.

A facade of the Museum of Contemporary Art Busan, one of the venues where the upcoming Busan Biennale will be held / Courtesy of the Busan Biennale Organizing Committee

Busan Biennale

Another leading contemporary art show kicking off later this year is the Busan Biennale 2022 under the theme, "We, on the Rising Wave."

Helmed by artistic director Kim Hae-ju, the former deputy director of the Art Sonje Center, the Biennale turns its eyes to narratives that have been stuck in the crevices of the southeastern port city during its turbulent modern history of industrialization and urbanization.

The multilayered term, "wave," from the title refers to the flood of people who have moved into or left Busan, the city that became the first international port in Korea in 1876, followed later in the 20th century by expansive industrial growth and eventual recessions in shipbuilding and manufacturing. It also visualizes the region's undulating terrain made up of coastal hills.

"Busan has undergone modernization, liberation from Japanese colonial rule, the Korean War and industrialization, to become what it is today," Kim said in a statement. "We can view the city as a specific reference to universal phenomena, based on the understanding of the marine port city's history of migration, labor structure and lifestyle."

In other words, the 65-day event, which is scheduled to open its doors on Sept. 3, will utilize Busan's specific history and evolution as a lens to bring together international narratives surrounding migration, women and labor, the urban ecosystem and technological advancement.

"By showing how the story that took place in the small alleys of Busan can be linked, intersected and repeated in other metropolitan cities across the globe, the exhibition seeks to suggest a way for us who live in different realities to view and live in this world together," Kim added.

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