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Highlights from the Gwangju Biennale
Curated by Defne Ayas and Natasha Ginwala, this year’s edition explores transnational kinships and inherited healing practices to commemorate the 40th anniversary of Gwangju May Uprising
One of Asia’s most prominent art exhibitions, the Gwangju Biennale – originally slated for 2020, but postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic – opened its 13th edition exploring the limits of individual cognition and the transcendent possibilities of what co-curators Defne Ayas and Natasha Ginwala define in their mission statement as ‘the extended mind’. Titled ‘Minds Rising, Spirits Tuning’, this iteration includes works by 69 artists across four venues, a series of site-specific commissions around the city, and a digital programme of podcasts, videos and online publications.
Gwangju Biennale explores wide spectrum of art touching the communal mind
Posted : 2021-04-08 11:30
Updated : 2021-04-08 12:21 The 13th Gwangju Biennale exhibition shows Outi Pieski s Beavvit II/ Rising Together II, left, and Min Joung-ki s landscape painting, Byeokgye Nine Banded Stream, Buk-gu, Gwangju, April 1. Yonhap
By Lee Gyu-lee
The coronavirus pandemic has changed so much of people s lives and the ways things are done. The Gwangju Biennale is no exception.
The Biennale, one of the largest art events in Asia, has had its fair share of challenges in bringing the much-anticipated show to art lovers.
The exhibition got pushed back twice ― from last September to this February, and then to this April ― and the organizers had to arrange and install most of the artworks without having the international artists present in Korea.
Design studio Works on its metaphysical identity for the Gwangju Biennale
The studio’s founders tell us how the pandemic has provoked new creative approaches for the team.
Words
Founded five years ago by Yeonjeong Lee and Harim Lee, the Seoul-based design studio Works was built with the intention to create “the most direct and way to communicate”. Explaining this to It’s Nice That nearly two years ago in our first interview with the studio, and now they join us again to catch-up on what what they’ve been up to recently. “We continue to put importance on ‘distinct expression’ and focus on the aspect of delicate nuance on top of that,” explains Yeonjeong. Focused on how to make the usual seem unusual, Works creates interesting amalgamations of image, font, photography and renders throughout its design portfolio. An example of this is its graphic identity for the Gwangju Biennale, a brief it’s completed for the past two years.
ArtReview
Defne Ayas and Natasha Ginwala, artistic directors of the 13th Gwangju Biennale, 2021.
Photo: choi.ok.soo.
‘‘We are convinced that access to spirit-worlds can help us to move beyond linear and hierarchical genealogies of knowledge that has been shaped by and through extractive forces and colonial modernity.’’
After two postponements, the 13th Gwangju Biennale, titled
Minds Rising, Spirits Tuning is set to open this April.
ArtReview Asia caught up with its artistic directors, Natasha Ginwala and Defne Ayas to talk about the challenges of curating during a pandemic and the resultant lockdowns, and about their hopes for the show when it opens.