Venice, Italy
Arts Council Korea is pleased to announce the online release of “Dear Ocean Friends”, held in Venice, Italy, from June 26 to 27, 2024. This discourse program was part of the 30th-anniversary exhibition celebrating the Korean Pavilion at the Venice Biennale, titled Every Island is a Mountain. The program was co-curated by ARKO Art Center and Drifting Curriculum, a multidisciplinary curatorial research platform, in collaboration with TBA21–Academy at Ocean Space. The event brought together 12 researchers, creators, and curators from various regions, including Korea, Southeast Asia, Oceania, and Northern Europe, to discuss art in the (Post) Anthropocene era and the sustainable future of biennials and exhibitionary complex, with a focus on “oceanic thinking.”
The first part of the program, titled “Monsoon Futurism—(Post) Anthropocene Asian Futurism,” took place at Ocean Space. It featured a lecture by Taiwanese artist Chih-Chung Chang, a lecture by Professor Young-Gyung Paik of Jeju National University, presentations by TBA21 director Markus Reymann and Ute Meta Bauer, a professor and curator at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore, and a screening of video work by Korean visual research band ikkibawiKrrr.
The second part of the event was held at Palazzo Malta—Ordine di Malta, the venue of the 30th Anniversary Exhibition Celebrating the Korean Pavilion at the Venice Biennale. Under the title “(Post) Anthropocene Institutions—Is Another World Possible?”, it included various programs such as a screening of DESIGN EARTH’s video, a presentation by Eleonora Sovrani, artistic director of We Are Here Venice, a talk by museologist Colin Sterling, and 2023 Helsinki Biennale’s director Joasia Krysa, and a discussion between ARKO Art Center director Jade Keunhye Lim and Busan Biennale 2024 directors Philippe Pirotte and Vera Mey.
Moderated by Juhyun Cho, director of Drifting Curriculum, the two-day discussion explored the possibilities for sustainable creative solidarity in Asia and the Pacific—a region impacted by historical exploitation and contemporary environmental challenges—and the role of institutions as sites of learning and communication for alternative sensibilities and perceptions to anthropocentric thinking.
“Dear Ocean Friends”, sponsored by LUSH, was organized in conjunction with Every Island is a Mountain, sponsored by Hyundai Motor Company, Hermès, Shinhan Bank, and Korean Air. “Dear Ocean Friends” is organized as a part of Every Island is a Mountain, the 30th Anniversary Exhibition Celebrating the Korean Pavilion at the Venice Art Biennale. The exhibition, featuring works by 36 artists representing contemporary Korean art, will be on view through September 8, 2024, at Palazzo Malta – Ordine di Malta in Venice, Italy. The video will be released end of July on the ARKO Art Center’s YouTube channel (@arkoartcenter). For more information about the program and exhibition, please visit the website of Every Island is a Mountain (venicebiennale.kr).
