Ahead of its opening next April, the 2023 Gwangju Biennale has named the first 58 artists (out of an estimated 80 in total) who will exhibit their work as part of the exhibition, which is being organized by Sook-Kyung Lee, senior curator at Tate Modern, entitled “soft and weak as water”.
Artists scheduled to participate include some of the most closely watched working today, including Farah Al Qasimi, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Latifa Echakhch, Sky Hopinka, Christine Sun Kim, Minjung Kim, Tanya Lukin Linklater, Guadalupe Maravilla and Noé Martínez, Alan Michelson, Vivian Suter and Alberta Whittle, as well as late artists such as Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Lucia Nogueira and Kim Lim.
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In selecting the list of artists, Lee also made a point of highlighting the work of Korean artists of different generations, such as Chang Jia, Lee Seung-taek and Oh Yoon, as well as international artists such as Soungui Kim, Aliza Nisenbaum and The Collective Pangrok Sulap, which will deal with the lingering legacy of the May 18 democratic uprising in the city. Other focal points are “artists who speak with lived experiences”, “artists who rethink traditions” and “underrepresented female artists”.
As part of the announcement, the Biennale also revealed that the exhibition will explore four distinct sub-themes: “Glowing halo positions the spirit of Gwangju as a source of inspiration and a model for resistance and solidarity; voices of the ancestors highlights transnational artistic approaches to incorporate and interpret traditions to question and challenge modernist ideas; Temporary Sovereignty deals with the development of postcolonial and decolonial artistic thought in relation to issues such as migration and diaspora; and Planetary Times explores the possibilities and limitations of a ‘planetary vision’ of environmental and environmental justice,” the press release reads.
The current list of participating artists follows below.
Larry Achiampong
Abbas Achavan
Farah al-Qasimi
Tarek Atoui
Bakhyt Bubikanova
Maria Magdalena Campos Pons
Changjia
Latifa Echakhch
James T Hong
Heaven Hopinka
Huong Dodinh
Tess Jaray
Kang Yeon-gyun
Naiza Khan
Yuki Kihara
Christine Sun Kim
Kira Kim
Kim Kulim
Minjung Kim
Songui Kim
Emily Kame Kngwarreye
Meiro Koizumi
Abdoulaye Konate
Chila Kumari Singh Burman
Lee Kun Yong
Lee Seung Taek
Kim Lim
Candice Lin
Tanja Lukin Linklater
Liu Jianhua
Guadalupe Maravilla
Noe Martinez
Mata Aho collective
Mayunkiki
Alan Michelson
Malgorzata Mirga-Tas
Naem Mohaiemen
Yuko Mohri
Betty Schaller
Aliza Nisenbaum
Lucia Nogueira
Oh Suk Kuhn
Oh Joon
Oum Jeong Soon
Pangrok Sulap
Sophiep Pich
Taiki Sakpisit
Thasnai Sethaseree
Dayanita Singh
Buhlebezwe Siwani
Vivian Suter
Yu Jiwon
Yuma Taru
Charwei Tsai
Judy Watson
Alberta Whittle
Robert Zhao Renhui
David Zinc Yi
