| Meiro Koizumi's "Theater of Life" (2023) / Courtesy of the artist, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam, and MUJIN-TO Production, Tokyo |
By Park Han-sol
The 14th edition of Gwangju Biennale, Asia's largest and longest-running survey of contemporary art, is set to bring in 79 artists and collectives to examine transnational and postcolonial narratives both within and beyond the context of Korea's southwestern city that witnessed the 1980 pro-democracy uprising.
Under the theme inspired by the chapter of a classical Chinese Daoist text, "Soft and Weak like Water," over half of the participating artists will unveil commissioned projects and new works during the 94-day event from April 7 to July 9.
Helmed by artistic director Lee Sook-kyung, the biennale will span four external venues throughout the city in addition to the main Gwangju Biennale Exhibition Hall ― Gwangju National Museum, Mugak Temple, Horanggasy Artpolygon and Artspace House.
Yokohama-based artist Meiro Koizumi is set to present his latest five-channel projection installation "Theater of Life" which traces the history of the Koryoin, ethnic Koreans from post-Soviet states, mainly Russia, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
To delve into their diasporic existence marked by several stages of life-altering migrations over the last century, the artist takes the archival documents of the Koryo Theater established in 1932 in the Russian Far East as the starting point. He collaborated with teenagers from Gwangju's Koryoin community for his role-playing workshops.
The mural and animation project of Seoul-based Lee Seung-ae will embellish the transitory spaces of the main Biennale Hall and take its cues from the purification rituals of Korean shamanism performed to wash away the grief of the deceased.
| Lee Seung-ae's "The Wanderer" (2023) / Courtesy of the artist, Arario Gallery |
The pieces featured throughout four external venues respond to each place's architectural and cultural contexts.
Buddhist Mugak Temple is set to exhibit a curated selection of contemplative works that muse on the cyclical nature of life by creators like Indian photographer Dayanita Singh and Vietnamese artist Huong Dodinh, who left her home country for France following the outbreak of the Vietnam War.
Horanggasy Artpolygon, a community art space that bears the memory of the 1910-45 Japanese colonial era and Korea's independence movements, will house "I/O," a site-specific sound installation produced by Yuko Mohri. The Japanese artist's work takes inspiration from International Booker Prize-winning Korean novelist Han Kang's "The White Book."
Also featured at the venue will be Kim Young-jae's cinematic documentation of experimental performances led by Korean artists from the early 1990s.
Candice Lin's newly commissioned project consists of ceramic sculptures that take cues from the Korean traditional techniques applied to early Joseon-era buncheong ― stone wares decorated with inlay, stamping, incision and other techniques. Her works will be put in dialogue with the Gwangju National Museum's extensive pottery collection to weave together the history of ceramic jars and contemporary globalism.