September 7–November 11, 2018
The Gwangju Biennale Foundation is delighted to announce the full list of artists for the 12th Gwangju Biennale, titled Imagined Borders. The Biennale will see 162 artists from 42 different countries participate in a series of seven exhibitions exploring the political, cultural, physical and emotional concepts of borders in today’s global community. For this edition of the Gwangju Biennale, a collective of 11 curators from around the world will devise a program of thematic exhibitions, in addition to a monumental new program, the GB Commission and a series of Pavilion Projects taking place across the city of Gwangju from September 7–November 11, 2018.
Clara Kim, The Daskalopoulos Senior Curator, International Art (Africa, Asia and Middle East) at London’s Tate Modern, looks into the past to understand contemporary realities, investigating the intersection between modernism, architecture and nation-building in the mid-20th century across different geographies and contexts.
Gridthiya Gaweewong, Artistic Director of the Jim Thompson Art Center in Bangkok, 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 politics of participation and power, the digital divide, contra-internet aesthetics, and analyses of worlds with perpetually threatened access to or without internet under our current and evolving post-internet conditions.
Yeon Shim Chung, Associate Professor at Hongik University in Seoul, and Yeewan Koon, Associate Professor 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 Man Seok Kim, Sung woo 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
Pio Abad (Philippines), Leonor Antunes (Portugal), Alexander Apóstol (Venezuela), Alexandre Arrechea (Cuba), Marwa Arsanios (USA), Kader Attia (France/Algeria), Yto Barrada (France/Morocco), Louidgi Beltrame (France), Los Carpinteros (Cuba), Shezad Dawood (UK), Alia Farid (Kuwait), Ângela 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
Tiffany Chung (Vietnam/USA), Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand), Ho Tzu Nyen (Singapore), Rushdi Anwar (Kurdistan-Iraq/Australia), Sawangwongse Yawnghwe (Myanmar/Canada), Shilpa Gupta (India), Jun Yang (China/Austria) & Michikazu Matsune (Japan/Austria), Dinh Q. Lê (Vietnam/USA), Studio Revolt (USA/Cambodia/Japan), 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), Didem Ozbek (Turkey), Superflex (Denmark), Pınar Öğrenci (Turkey), Halil Altindere (Turkey), Svay Sareth (Cambodia)
Curators: Christine Y. Kim & Rita Gonzalez
Ho Rui An (Singapore), Lara Baladi (Lebanon/Egypt), Zach Blas (USA/UK), Alexey Buldakov (Russia), Shu Lea Cheang (Taiwan/France), Simon Denny (New Zealand/Germany), Sunwoo Hoon (South Korea), Stanya Kahn (USA), Ayoung Kim (South Korea), Heecheon Kim (South Korea), Trevor Paglen (USA/Germany), Mark Lotfy (Egypt), Kirill Savchenkov (Russia), Martine Syms (USA), Julia Weist (USA) & Nestor Siré (Cuba), Miao Ying (China)
Curators: Yeon Shim Chung & Yeewan Koon
Sarah Abu Abdallah (Saudi Arabia), Nina Chanel Abney (USA), Francis Alÿs (Belgium), Seung Woo Back (South Korea), Yoan Capote (Cuba), Luke Ching (Hong Kong), Paolo Cirio (Italy), Tara Donovan (USA), Hasan M. Elahi (Bangladesh), Inci Eviner (Turkey), Shilpa Gupta (India), Byron Kim (USA), Kcho (Cuba), Minjung Kim (South Korea), Aernout Mik (Netherlands), Shitamichi Motoyuki (Japan), Yoshitomo Nara (Japan), Simon Leung (Hong Kong), Chen Wei (China), Ezra Wube (Ethiopia), Xiyadie (China), Hyangro Yoon (South Korea), Joongho Yum (South Korea)
Curators: Man Seok Kim & Sung woo Kim & Chong-Ok Paek
Curator: Man Seok Kim
KyungHwa Kim, SeHee Park, HwaYeon Park, JeongA Bang+Akira Tsuboi (Japan), JaeKyu Byun, MongJoo Son, OkHyun An, SangHee Yeo, YouSeung Jeong, Hyungseop Cho
Curator: Sung woo Kim
Suki Seokyeong Kang, Yongju Kwon, Daum Kim, RohwaJeong, Seonhee Moon, Hyunjoo Heaven Baek, Jung Ju An, Yongseok Oh, Okin Collective, Jeongsu Woo, Woosung Lee, Heeseung Chung, Kichang Choi, Daejin Choi
Curator: Chong-Ok Paek
Dongho Kang, Sunghong Min, SangHwa Park, Iljeung Park, YunKyoung Som, Se-young Youn, Jeonglok Lee, Chanboo Jung
Curator: B.G. Muhn
Chang Ho Choe, Myong Chol Hong, Kwang Chol So, Hyok Chol Kim, Il Kyong Kim, Hyok Im, Yong Gun Ko, Yu Dam Ro, Song Ho Kim, Jin Myong Ri, Kwang Nam Han, Nam Hun Kim, Yu Song Kang, Yun Hyok Kang, Gun Yun, Kwang Guk Wang, Song Il Nam, Byol Jong, Hyun Uk Kim, Il Kwang Baek, Ju Song Rim, Yu Song Choe, Dong Hwan Kim, Chol Ri, Song Gun Kim, In Sok Kim, Chol Kim, Yong Ho Cha, Ki Song Ri, Jae Hyon Ri, Yong Man Jong, Song Min Kim, Gil Nam Jang
Curator: David Teh
Agatha Gothe-Snape (Australia), Ho Tzu Nyen (Singapore), Yeonkun Kang (South Korea), Koh Nguang How (Singapore), Lee Ungno (South Korea), Tom Nicholson (Australia), John Pule (New Zealand), ruangrupa (Indonesia), Ella Sutherland (New Zealand), Wrong Solo (Agatha Gothe-Snape & Brian Fuata) (New Zealand)
GB Commission
Adrián Villar Rojas (Argentina), Mike Nelson (UK), Kader Attia (France/Algeria), Apichatpong Weerasethakul (Thailand)
