Artist list for 15th edition

Coinciding with the 30th anniversary of the Gwangju Biennale, the 15th Gwangju Biennale titled Pansori, a soundscape of the 21st century, gathers 73 artists from 30 countries to attempt to map the complexity of the contemporary world.

Disputed borders, anti-migration walls, confinement, social distancing, segregation policies… These seemingly dissimilar topics share a common point, which is space, and its political organization. Space is also a crossroads that connects all emancipatory struggles, from feminism to decolonization and LGBTQ+ rights, as the division of space is always geopolitical. The main effect of climate change is the emergence of a new topology, a new world map in which carbon dioxide and urban life, desertification and migration, deforestation and social struggles, destruction of animal habitats and vegetal invasions, have all become brutally interconnected. Pansori, a soundscape of the 21st century is an operatic exhibition about the space we live in, from housing to human settlement on the planet.

But a landscape is also a soundscape, and this exhibition is constructed as a narrative, connecting musical and visual forms. Pansori, appeared in the 17th century in Korea, is a musical genre anchored in its native territory. In Korean, it literally means “the noise from the public place”, which could also now be translated as “the voice of the subalterns”. The 15th Gwangju Biennale intends to recreate the original spirit of pansori, inviting artists who explore contemporary space through their dialogue with surrounding living forms.

Art is also a specific place, which allows us to re-think the space shared between humans, machines, animals, spirits, and organic life—our relational space.

The artists in this exhibition address spatial issues either by representing contemporary landscapes and the urban condition, saturated with human presence, or the effects of industrialization upon natural ecosystems. Some open up our space by entering into dialogue with machines, animals, spirits, bacteria, and other life forms, or examining the molecular composition of the world. Still others work at a cosmic scale, inventing a contemporary shamanism. From extremely dense to desertified areas, Pansori, a soundscape of the 21st century presents itself as an opera you can walk into.

Participating artists:
Saâdane Afif, Haseeb Ahmed, Deniz Aktaş , Noel W. Anderson, Andrius Arutiunian, Kevin Beasley, Wendimagegn Belete, Bianca Bondi, Dora Budor, Peter Buggenhout, Angela Bulloch, Alex Cerveny, Cheng Xinhao, Choi Haneyl, Gaëlle Choisne, Anna Conway, Binta Diaw, John Dowell, Hayden Dunham, Liam Gillick, Loris Gréaud, Matthias Groebel, Matthew Angelo Harrison, Marguerite Humeau, Agata Ingarden, Hye Joo Jun, Jun Hyoung San, Kim Hyeong Suk, Kim Jayi, YoungEun Kim, Dominique Knowles, Agnieszka Kurant, Hyewon Kwon, Netta Laufer, Brianna Leatherbury, Yein Lee, Oswaldo Maciá, Mira Mann, Cinthia Marcelle, Vladislav Markov, Beaux Mendes, Myriam Mihindou, Na Mira, Saadia Mirza, David Noonan , Katja Novitskova, Josèfa Ntjam, Emeka Ogboh, Frida Orupabo, Lydia Ourahmane, Mimi Park, Philippe Parreno, Amol K. Patil, Harrison Pearce, Lucy Raven, Tabita Rezaire, Marina Rheingantz, Marina Rosenfeld, Max Hooper Schneider, Franck Scurti, Soomin Shon, Jura Shust, Marianna Simnett, Sofya Skidan, Anastasia Sosunova, Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Sung Tieu, Julian Abraham “Togar”, Unmake Lab, Yuyan Wang, Ambera Wellmann, Kandis Williams, Phillip Zach

Directed by Nicolas Bourriaud, the 15th Gwangju Biennale will feature a dynamic program that encompasses an exhibition, an opening opera, which features a song written in collaboration between Han Kang and the Seoul band WeMu, and a symposium bringing together artists and philosophers.

“Learning from Pansori,” an introductory video essay directed by Nicolas Bourriaud which unveils core concepts of the 15th Gwangju Biennale, will be featured at Madang: Where We Become Us. Madang is a special archival exhibition commemorating the Gwangju Biennale’s 30th anniversary opening in Venice this April. The video essay will also be accessible online.