Contact

to.

Period
: 2023-04-07 ~ 2023-07-09
Participating Countries
: 0
Artists
: 0
관련 이미지 Website

soft and weak like water
The 14th Gwangju Biennale

2023-04-07 ~ 2023-07-09

The 14th Gwangju Biennale proposes to imagine our shared planet as a site of resistance, coexistence, solidarity and care by thinking through the transformative and restorative potential of water as a metaphor, a force, and a method. Soft and weak like water celebrates an aqueous model of power that brings forth change, not with an immediate effect but with endurance and pervasive gentleness, flowing across structural divisions and differences. Embracing contradictions and paradoxes – as “there is nothing softer and weaker than water, and yet there is nothing better for attacking hard and strong things” (Dao De Jing, chap.78) – the Biennale’s theme highlights the capacity of art to permeate deep into the individual and the collective, which enables us to navigate through the complexities of the world with a sense of awareness and direction.

Curatorial Statement


The 14th Gwangju Biennale proposes to imagine our shared planet as a site of resistance, coexistence, solidarity and care by thinking through the transformative and restorative potential of water as a metaphor, a force, and a method. Soft and weak like water celebrates an aqueous model of power that brings forth change, not with an immediate effect but with endurance and pervasive gentleness, flowing across structural divisions and differences. Embracing contradictions and paradoxes – as “there is nothing softer and weaker than water, and yet there is nothing better for attacking hard and strong things” (Dao De Jing, chap.78) – the Biennale’s theme highlights the capacity of art to permeate deep into the individual and the collective, which enables us to navigate through the complexities of the world with a sense of awareness and direction.

Soft and weak like water thus explores the subtle undercurrents and intangible forces of art that relate to all aspects of human experience – from the emotional and psychological to the social and political – with the hope of restoring the fluid wholeness of here and everywhere, now and everywhen, one and everything. This involves examination of how artists from different corners of the globe are responding to current crises that are affecting the whole world, from the life-threatening pandemic and deepening war and refugee crisis to reinforced racism and climate catastrophes. The Biennale will underscore how these responses encourage diverse and multifaceted actions on a transnational level. It aspires to understand seemingly disparate yet equally urgent global issues as one entanglement that affects the whole planet and its inhabitants; problem which require shared planetary vision. A perspective that transcends national or regional boundaries, and diverse and at times opposing values, is necessary in contemplating the common future of humanity. By employing a relational cosmology that privileges change, fluidity and indeterminacy as a lens to view current crises and corresponding artistic practice, the Biennale intends to present the planet as a shared, interconnected, borderless space intertwined with the time before and after the Anthropocene.

The 14th Gwangju Biennale embraces the city of Gwangju as the origin and source of the ‘Gwangju spirit’, which is already implicated in multiplicity. The city became a sacred symbol of democracy, resistance and justice after the ‘Gwangju Uprising’ of 1980 (also known as ‘Gwangju Democratization Movement’). The denial and suppression that continued in the following years by the paramilitary regime did not dampen the city’s efforts in launching a major international art biennial in 1995 to remember and honour the sacrifice of their citizens. Posing a question “What does it mean to think of Gwangju as not only a geography or locality, but a paradigm, a manual, an epistemological framework?”, Soft and weak like water seeks to reinterpret the wave of change the city and its people generated through contemporary art. The opportunity to think through and with the city of Gwangju could expand our perspective beyond the binary structure of a geographical centre and a periphery, encouraging us to understand the world as the cumulative effect of transnational intersections and connections distributed across time and space.

Another key aim of the Biennale is to address Gwangju’s historic identification as ‘Yehyang (藝鄕, a region of art and culture)’, renowned for its calligraphy, ink painting, pansori, lacquerware and other traditional arts and crafts. Combined with extensively practiced philosophical and behavioural teachings of Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism (which value the negation of desire, high ethical standards and non-action as a way of nature respectively), the city’s strong tradition of artistic practice and sensibility could be surfaced and understood in connection with ancestral teachings present in other cultures. By drawing inspiration from the artistic and cultural roots of Gwangju, Soft and weak like water intends to show the city’s transcultural resonance with what might appear to be remote and unrelated, such as Latin American indigenous cultures, South Pacific cosmology, North African poetics, and cultural legacies of the trading routes in Indian Ocean and Central Asia.

What emerges through these imaginative intersections is an interconnected, planetary vision of ourselves in relation to one another and what is beyond us, highlighting fluid connections between traditions and cultures across geopolitical boundaries. It is hoped that such a vision will enable us to critically re-evaluate the existing structures of knowledge which were predominantly shaped by modernist, often Western, colonial perspectives, and demonstrate how another system of knowledge is possible: one of ancestral and indigenous knowledge rooted in respective histories and cultural identities. We are invited to learn how to exist together in our differences, to find solidarity in both our affinities and our singularities.

 

 

 

광주비엔날레 전시관 Gwangju Biennale Exhibition Hall

비엔날레 전시관은 1995 년 출범 당시부터 광주비엔날레의 핵심적인 전시 공간으로 사용돼 왔다.광주 5.18 민주화운동 당시의 폭력적인 억압에서 벗어난 지 15 년 뒤 개관한 이래로 그 저항 정신을 기려왔고, 광주를 넘어 한국,아시아, 전 세계를 연결하는 역사적 시민 투쟁은 물론 여러 동시대 시민 투쟁을 조명하며 광주 정신의 중요성을 강조하고 있다.본 전시관은 이번 비엔날레를 위해 마련된 전시 공간 중 가장 큰 만큼 50 명이 넘는 미술가들과 사상가들을 한데 모으고, 전시관 내 각기 세분된 5 개의 대형 갤러리를 엮어 하나의‘ 메타 스코어’ 로 구성한다.전시된 작품들은 현재라는 시점으로 들어가는 감각적 통로로서의 역할을 한다.더 나아가 본 전시는 기념을 위해 고안된 미학, 토착(민) 생활 세계, 군국주의가 남긴 유산, 모계 중심의 공동체와 성소수자 문화에서 비롯한 생존을 위한 전략 등을 경험할 수 있도록 관객들을 이끌고, 이로써 네트워크로 연결된 사회가 간직한 집단 지성의 기반을 눈앞에 펼쳐내 보인다.

The Gwangju Biennale Exhibition Hall has served as the primary location of the Gwangju Biennale since its inception in 1995. Opening its gates for the first time fifteen years after the violent repression of the Gwangju Democratization Movement, it commemorates the spirits of the uprising and addresses their significance in light of contemporary and historical civic struggles that connect Gwangju, South Korea, and Asia with the rest of the world.The largest of the exhibition venues brings together over fifty artists and thinkers and organizes each of its five large - scale galleries as a meta - score.The works on view conjure sensorial entryways into the present while inviting audiences to experience commemorative aesthetics, indigenous life worlds, legacies of militarism, and strategies of survival devised by matrilineal collectivities and queer cultures, laying bare the groundwork of collective intelligence in a networked society.

함께 떠오르기Gwangju Rising Together

"함께 떠오르기"는 기념하기 위해 고안된 미학, 가상의 지형들, 모임을 구성하는 다양한 방식, 보호와 회복을 상징하는 신성한 표상 등의 스펙트럼 속으로 관객을 안내하는 하나의 프리즘으로 재구성됐다.[…] 다수가 함께 하는 정신을 강조하고자 비엔날레 전시관 1 층을 최초로 무료 개방한다.다양한 세대의 관중이〈 떠오르는 마음, 맞이하는 영혼〉 을 되찾고, 그 안에서 순회하고, 소통할 수 있는 환경을 조성하고, 이로써 이 세계의 불안정한 상태를 인지하고 반영하는 이번 비엔날레만의 어휘와 태도를 제안하는 장을 마련하고자 한다.
Reconfiguring the gallery as a prism, Rising Together invites audiences to pass through a spectrum of commemorative aesthetics, virtual terrains, forms of gathering, and sacred emblems of protection and recovery.[…] In the spirit of the commons, the ground floor of the Biennale Hall provides free access for the very first time, proposing a setting for an intergenerational public to return to, circumambulate, and communicate with Minds Rising, Spirits Tuning and, in turn, its vocabularies that reckon with the volatile state of this world.

산, 들, 강과의 동류의식Kinship of Mountains, Fields and Rivers

"산, 들, 강과 동류의식"은 인간 관계를 통해서만이 아니라 인간계를 초월해 형성된다.따라서 본 갤러리에서 우리는 산등성이를 지나 강줄기에 이르는 변화무쌍한 생태계에 에워싸이는 것은 물론, 한반도에서 스칸디나비아 북부의 사프미(사미족 문화권), 아오테아로아(‘뉴질랜드’ 를 지칭하는 마오리어) 에 걸쳐 나타나는 공동의 실천 양식을 함께 목도한다.갤러리2에 전시된 작품들은 한국의 시각 문화를 살피기 위해 동시대 미술을 넘어서 구술 문화, 전원의 다양한 우주론, 농업 사회 속 노동의 양상 등에 주목함으로써 계속해서 부상할‘ 공동체적 마음’ 이라는 지성을 갖추기 위한 초석을 다진다.[…]
Modes of kinship figure not only between humans but also with the beyond human world(s), as in this gallery we converge amidst transforming ecologies from mountainous terrain to river currents and with communal practices from the Korean peninsula to Sápmi and Aotearoa(New Zealand).Works in this gallery actively draw from the visual culture of Korea beyond the field of contemporary art, and focusing on oral cultures, rural cosmologies, and forms of labor in agrarian life to lay the groundwork for intelligences of the“ communal mind” to continually emerge.[…]

욕망 어린 신체, 분과적 경계 너머Bodies in Desire, Beyond the Disciplinary Fold

어떤 형태의 지성이 오늘날 세계화된 사회를 군림하고 있는가 ? 테크노크라시의 지성인가, 아니면 이성애 중심적 지성인가 ? 독재 정권이 득세하고 군국주의가 확산하고 있는 가운데, 우리는 이 시점에서 사회적 상상력을 발휘해 공동체적 자유에 힘을 실을 수 있는 방식들을 고민해야 한다.그러한 상상력은 돌봄의 체계를 동원해 감금과 감시의 손아귀에 저항하고, 상처만 남기는 사회적 모델에서 벗어나 회복과 수정의 정의를 구현할 수 있는 조건들로 이행할 수 있도록 이끈다.갤러리3에서 우리는 마음과 신체의 관계들을 한정시키는 분과적 논리를 넘어서 다양한 신체가 가진 수많은 조건, 기쁨 / 쾌락과 욕망의 혼종성을 탐구한다.[…]
What forms of intelligence become dominant formations— technocratic or heteronormative–– in today’ s globalized societies ? As authoritarian forces rise and agents of militarism proliferate, we consider here the ways in which collective freedom is harnessed through social imaginaries that resist the grip of incarceration and surveillance to mobilize systems of care and move from injurious models of society toward conditions of repair and restorative justice.On this floor, we explore plural conditions of bodies and the hybridity of pleasure and desire beyond the disciplinary logic imposed on mind - body relations.[…]

돌연변이에 관해 Matters of Mutation

자기모순적 시간 구조 안에서 자본주의가 가속화하면서 여러 신체들 사이에서, 각 신체들 내부에서 고통스러운 비명이 터져나오고 있다.우리가 지금 살아가고 있는, 톱날 같이 거칠면서 아무런 음색도 없는 이 순간은(미시적이고 거시적인) 돌연변이들이 활개치도록 풀어주고 있으며, 이들은 아름다움, 인종, 서구식‘ 자연’ 개념 등 구시대적 관념들을 신속하게 대체시키고 있다.[…]
Accelerated capitalism stirs crises within and between bodies amid the paradoxical textures of time.The jagged and atonal moment we are living through unleashes mutant beings— both microscopic and colossal— that quickly replace dated concepts of beauty, race, and western constructs of “nature.”Works by Gözde Ilkin and Rajni Perera conceive synergies between humans, animals, and plants.As the contours of public suffering and sickness drastically shift, works by Tishan Hsu interpret these affective surfaces and conflate robotic parts, human orifices, and clinical aesthetics.

행동하는 모계문화 Matriarchy in Motion

비엔날레 전시관의 가장 마지막 갤러리에는 여성적 지혜가 축적해 온 모계사회의 문화와 지식을 펼쳐 보인다.이곳에서 우리는 한국 전통 신화에 자주 등장했던 용태부인을 표현한 역사적 그림들을 비롯해, 안젤라 멜리토풀로스의 에세이 필름에서 우리를 토착민의 오스트레일리아에 접속시키는 토지권 분쟁, 소유권 강탈, 모계사회의 토지 등에 대한 영화 - 신체적 해석을 통해‘ 반체제적 여신들’ 의 베일을 벗기는 현장 한복판에 서게 된다.릴리안 린의〈 전기(電氣) 신부〉(1989) 는‘ 자연스러운’ 신체가 테크노 - 페미니즘의 미래를 논하면서 어떻게 기계화되고, 혼종화되는지 보여준다.린 허쉬만 리슨은 여성이라는 개념 자체를‘ 뒤트는’ 박테리아 개체, 자양물, 형태론을 제시해 보이기 위해 살아 있는 조각 작품을 만들어 냈다.비비안 린은 우리 뇌의 휴식 상태에 주목하고, 또한 여성적 매력을 물씬 풍기는 일련의 토템 모티프를 구성해 낸다.끝으로 펨케 헤레그라벤은 우리를 물속으로, 진주를 캐는 제주 해녀의 후두(喉頭) 속으로 이끌고, 물속의 음성으로 가득한 청각적 환경을 조성해 보인다.모성의 신체는 출산이라는 기능을 초월하며, 더 나아가 여러 사회적 불화를 해결하도록 주도하고 종국에는 이를 극복해 낸다.
Matriarchal cultures and knowledge acquired through feminine wisdom(s) circulate in the endmost gallery of the Biennale Hall.We convene here amid the unveiling of “dissident goddesses” in historical paintings of dragon queens from popular Korean mythology and cine - somatic readings of land struggles, dispossession, and matrilineal grounds that connect us with Aboriginal Australia in Angela Melitopoulos’ essay film.Liliane Lijn 's Electric Bride indicates how the “natural” body becomes mechanized and hybrid speaking to techno-feminist futures. Lynn Hershman Leeson creates a living sculpture addressing bacterial agency, sustenance, and morphologies that “twist” the very idea of woman. Vivian Lynn draws attention to the recesses of our brain, and composes totemic motifs that exude femme power. And finally, Femke Herregraven places us underwater and in the larynxes of Jeju pearl divers, evoking an acoustic environment filled with aquatic tonalities. The maternal body acts beyond reproductive duties, moreover it processes and vanquishes societal ruptures.

국립광주박물관 Gwangju National Museum

사방천지, 온전히 죽지 못한 존재들 The Undead from Four Directions

국립광주박물관에서는 죽음과 사후 세계 사이의 대화, 영적인 오브제의 기능 회복, 신체의 육체적 한계, 애도를 위한 행위 등에 관한 주제를 풀어나간다.…국립광주박물관에 소개된 미술 작품 및 유물은 산 자들의 세계(들) 를 규명하는‘ 실제’ 를 기록하는 데 선조와의 연쇄적 관계, 질환 및 치료에 대한 비서구적 방식들,‘온전히 죽지 못한 존재들’ 이 수행하는 근본적인 역할을 논한다.

The Biennale here unfolds a dialogue of death and the afterlife, the reparation of spirit - objects, the corporeal limits of the body, and acts of mourning.…artistic and historical works attune to links of ancestry, non - western mappings of aliment and cure, and the foundational role of the undead in shaping registers of “the real” across the world(s) of the living.

광주극장 Gwangju Theater

자주적 이미지의 세계들Sovereign Image Worlds

한국에서 현재 운영 중인 극장 중 가장 오래된 광주극장에서는, 카라빙 필름 콜렉티브가 개척민 사회의 폭력에 저항하는 자주권의 형태들을 창안하고자 유독성에 맞서 즉흥성과 힙합 음악을 활용한 이들 특유의 영화 미학을 구현해 보인다.주디 라둘의 몰입적 설치 작품과 퍼포먼스는 기술적, 생물적 의미에서 이미지 생산의 도식적 반복에 도전한다.…극장의 복도에 설치된 조피아 리데트의 포토몽타주는 1970 년대 후반부터 제작됐으며 영화 같은 역사적 장면들과 미장센 사이에 초현실적인 대화를 촉발시킨다.

At Korea’ s oldest operational cinema, Karrabing Film Collective activates their cinematic aesthetics through improvisation and hi - hop in the face of toxicity to conceive forms of sovereignty against settler violence.Judy Radul’ s immersive installation and performance challenges the schematic refrains of image production in both a technological and biological sense.…Zofia Rydet developed in the late 1970 s initiate a surrealist dialogue with filmic histories and mis - en - scene.

호랑가시나무 아트폴리곤 Horanggasy Artpolygon

깊은 기억, 다종의 시대 Deep Memory, Multi - species Time

양림산은 일제 강점기 및 반일 운동, 기독교 복음 전도, 공동의 보건 복지, 미국 선교사들의 전략적 역할 등 한국 근현대사의 복잡다단한 면면이 얽히고 설킨 상징적이고 신성한 장소로, 광주비엔날레 역사상 처음 전시 공간으로 사용된다. …

The sacred Yangnim Mountain–a symbol of Korea’s layered histories from Japanese colonization and anticolonial resistance to Christian evangelization, communal healthcare, and the strategic role of American missionaries in Gwangju – offers a venue for the Biennale for the first time. …

Sook-Kyung Lee, Artistic Director

Lee is Senior Curator, International Art and the head of Hyundai Tate Research Centre: Transnational at Tate Modern. She curated numerous exhibitions at Tate, most recently Nam June Paik (2019-20)and A Year In Art: Australia 1992 (2021-23). Lee was also the Commissioner and Curator of the Korean Pavilion at the 2015 Venice Biennale.

 

Kerryn Greenberg, Associate Curator

Greenberg is a Co-Director of New Curators, a paid one-year curatorial training programme in London for individuals from lower socio-economic backgrounds. Previously she was Head of International Collection Exhibitions at Tate, where amongst other things she was responsible for founding Tate’s Africa Acquisitions Committee in 2011.

 

Sooyoung Leam, Assistant Curator

Leam is an independent curator and art historian based in Seoul, Korea. Recently a co-curator of MaytoDay, part of Gwangju Biennale Foundation’s May 18 special exhibition project, she was also assistant curator at Shanghai Project and curated exhibitions at such venues as ASEAN Culture House.

 

Harry C. H. Choi, Assistant Curator

Choi is an independent curator and critic based in San Francisco, USA and Seoul, Korea. He held curatorial fellowships at the Museum of Modern Art, New York and Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago and writes regularly for such publications as Artforum and Texte zur Kunst.