Press Release
Resource Center
Curators of The 12th Gwangju Biennale 2018
Clara Kim , The Daskalopoulos Senior Curator, International Art (Africa, Asia and Middle East) at London’s Tate Modern since 2016, will curate one of the exhibitions in ‘Imagined Borders’, departing from the view that the present is informed by the past, exploring the desire to find a place in the world and the fate of modern utopian dreams. Kim will investigate the intersection between modernism, architecture and nation-building in the mid-20th century across different geographies and contexts.
Gridthiya Gaweewong, currently Artistic Director of the Jim Thompson Art Center in Bangkok, addresses issues of social transformation confronting artists from Thailand and beyond since the Cold War. In ‘Imagined Borders’, she will present a show that investigates the narratives that have emerged from border conflicts and the patterns of mass-migration within Southeast Asia and beyond since the colonial period to the present.
Curator and Acting Department Head in Contemporary Art at Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) Rita Gonzalez and Associate Curator of Contemporary Art at LACMA Christine Y. Kim will examine the contemporary world through the lens of the digital sphere and the internet. Their exhibition will look at the politics of participation and power, the digital divide, contra-internet aesthetics, and will present “analyses of worlds with perpetually threatened access to or without internet under our current and evolving post-internet conditions”.
Yeon Shim Chung, Associate Professor, Department of Art History and Theory, Hongik University, Seoul, South Korea, and Yeewan Koon, Associate Professor of Chinese and Japanese Art and Architecture in the Department of Fine Arts at The University of Hong Kong, will work together on a presentation that will draw attention to the everyday boundaries that are mediated, fictionalized or transgressed as part of our daily lives. Their show will bring attention to aspects that are often obscured and transformed in our everyday experience.
Korean curators Sung woo Kim, Man Seok Kim and Chong-Ok Paek will bring together South Korean artists to focus on three concepts of borders: the psychological boundaries between the individual and the multitude, the logic of meeting and parting in relation to places and non-places of assembly, and symmetrical imagination of coexistence between human and nature.
Korean artist B.G. Muhn, Professor at Georgetown University in Washington D.C., will focus on the art of North Korea, by rethinking the limitations of the aesthetic border between Socialist Realism and the Western concept of “Art for Art’s sake”. Meanwhile, Singapore-based curator and associate professor at National University of Singapore David Teh will address the history of the Gwangju Biennale, through a series of “returns” designed to reactivate past editions in vibrant dialogue with the present one.
Participating Artists at the 12th Gwangju Biennale:
Curator: Clara Kim
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS / 27
Pio Abad (Philippines), Leonor Antunes (Portugal), Alexander Apostol (Venezuela), Alexandre, Arrechea (Cuba), Marwa Arsanios (USA), Kader Attia (France/Algeria), Yto Barrada (France), Louidgi Beltrame (France), Los Carpinteros (Cuba), Shezad Dawood (UK), Alia Farid (Kuwait), Angela Ferreira (Mozambique), Carlos Garaicoa (Cuba), Tanya Goel (India), Terence Gower (Canada), Kiluanji Kia Henda (Angola), Lais Myrrha (Brazil), Damián Ortega (Mexico), Ram Rahman (India), Marwan Rechmaoui (Lebanon), Mauro Restiffe (Brazil), Lawrence Sumulong (USA), Seo Hyun-Suk (South Korea), Amie Siegel (USA), Maria Taniguchi (Philippines), Clarissa Tossin (Brazil), Ala Younis (Kuwait)
Curator: Gridthiya Gaweewong
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS / 20
Tiffany Chung (Vietnam), Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand), Ho Tzu Nyen (Singapore),
Rushdi Anwar (Iraq), Sawangwongse Yawnghwe (Myanmar), Shilpa Gupta (India), Jun Yang
(China), Dinh Q. Lê(Vietnam), StudioRevolt: Anida Yoeu Ali & Masahiro Sugano (Cambodia), Chia-Wei Hsu (Taiwan), Sutthirat Supaparinya (Thailand), I-na Phuyuthanon (Thailand), Chris Chong Chan Fui (Malaysia), Kader Attia (France/Algeria), Nipan Oranniwesna (Thailand), Tom Nicholson (Australia), Agnieszka Kalinowska (Poland), Rafal Milach (Poland), Piyarat Piyapongwiwat (Thailand), Munem Wasif (Bangladesh)
Curators: Christine Y. Kim & Rita Gonzalez
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS / 16
Ho Rui An (Singapore), Lara Baladi (Lebanon), Zach Blas (USA), Alexey Buldakov (Russia),
Shu Lea Cheang (Taiwan), Simon Denny (New Zealand), Sunwoo Hoon (South Korea), Stanya, Kahn (USA), Ayoung Kim(South Korea), Heecheon Kim (South Korea), Trevor Paglen (USA), Mark Lotfy (Egypt), Kirill Savchenkov (Russia), Martine Syms (USA), Julia Weist (USA) & Nestor Siré (Cuba), Miao Ying (China)
Curators: Yeon Shim Chung & Yeewan Koon
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS / 23
Tara Donovan (USA), Francis Alÿs (Belgium), Byron Kim (USA), Hyangro Yoon (South Korea), Shilpa Gupta (India), Hasan M. Elahi (Bangladesh), Sarah Abu Abdallah (Saudi Arabia), Aernout Mik (Netherlands), Shitamichi Motoyuki (Japan), Minjung Kim (South Korea), Kcho (Cuba), Nina Chanel Abney (USA), Paolo Cirio (Italia), Inci Eviner (Turkey), Luke Ching (Hong Kong), Yoan Capote (Cuba), Ezra Wube (Ethiopia), Chen Wei (China), Yoshitomo Nara (Japan), Simon Leung (Hong Kong), Xiyadie (China), Seung Woo Back (South Korea), Joongho Yum(South Korea)
Curators: Man Seok Kim & Sung woo Kim & Chong-Ok Paek
Man Seok Kim/ PARTICIPATING ARTISTS / 10
KyungHwa Kim (South Korea), SeHee Park (South Korea), HwaYeon Park (South Korea), JeongA Bang (South Korea), JaeKyu Byun (South Korea), MongJoo Son (South Korea), OkHyun An (South Korea), SangHee Yeo (South Korea), YouSeung Jeong (South Korea), Hyungseop Cho (South Korea)
Curator: Sung woo Kim
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS / 14
Suki Seokyeong Kang (South Korea), Yongju Kwon (South Korea), Daum Kim (South Korea), RohwaJeong (South Korea), Seonhee Moon (South Korea), Hyunjoo Heaven Baek (South Korea), Jung Ju An (South Korea), Yongseok Oh(South Korea), Okin Collective (South Korea), Jeongsu Woo (South Korea), Woosung Lee (South Korea), Heeseung Chung (South Korea), Kichang Choi (South Korea), Daejin Choi (South Korea)
Curator: Chong-Ok Paek
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS / 8
Dongho Kang (South Korea), Sunghong Min (South Korea), SangHwa Park (South Korea),
Iljeung PARK (South Korea), YunKyoung So (South Korea), Se-young Youn (South Korea),
Jeonglok Lee (South Korea), Chanboo Jung (South Korea)
Curator: B.G. Muhn
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS / (North Korea) 31
Choe Chang Ho, Hong Myong Chol, So Kwang Chol, Kim Hyok Chol, Kim Il Kyong, Im Hyok, Ko Yong Gun, Ro Yu Dam, Kim Song Ho, Ri Jin Myong, Han Kwang Nam, Kim Nam Hun, Kang Yu Song, Kang Yun Hyok, Yun Gun, Wang Kwang Guk, Nam Song Il, Jong Byol, Kim, Hyun Uk, Baek Il Kwang, Rim Ju Song, Choe Yu Song, Kim Dong Hwan, Ri Chol, Kim Song, Gun, Kim In Sok, Kim Chol, Cha Yong Ho, Ri Ki Song, Ri Jae Hyon, Jong Yong Man
Curator: David Teh
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS / 6
Tom Nicholson (Australia), Agatha Goethe-Snape (Australia), Wrong Solo (Agatha
Gothe-Snape & Brian Fuata) (New Zealand), Ella Sutherland (New Zealand), Koh Nuang How (Singapore), Ho Tzu Nyen (Singapore)
GB Commission
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS / 4
Adrian Villar Rojas (Argentina), Mike Nelson (UK), Kader Attia (France/Algeria), Apichatpong
Weerasethakul (Thailand)
For press enquiries contact Fiona Russell, Sutton PR on fiona@suttonpr.com / +44 (0) 20 7183 3577
Bella Jung, Gwangju Biennale Foundation on bellajung@gwangjubiennale.org/ +82 (0) 62 608 4221 /+82 (0)10 4277 9997