Ahead of its opening next April, the 2023 Gwangju Biennale has named the initial 58 artists (of an estimated 80 total) that are set to exhibit their work as part of the exhibition, which is organized by Tate Modern senior curator Sook-Kyung Lee under the title of “soft and weak like water.”
Among the artists slated to participate are some of the most closely watched ones working today, including Farah Al Qasimi, María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Latifa Echakhch, Sky Hopinka, Christine Sun Kim, Minjung Kim, Tanya Lukin Linklater, Guadalupe Maravilla, Noé Martínez, Alan Michelson, Vivian Suter, and Alberta Whittle, as well as late artists like Emily Kame Kngwarreye, Lucia Nogueira, and Kim Lim.
In selecting the artist list, Lee has also placed a focus on highlighting the work of Korean artists from different generations, like Chang Jia, Lee Seung-taek, and Oh Yoon, as well as international artists working with the history of Gwangju, like Soungui Kim, Aliza Nisenbaum, and the collective Pangrok Sulap, which will look at the lasting legacy of the May 18 Democratic Uprising in the city. Additional focuses include “artists who speak with lived experiences,” “artists rethinking traditions,” and “underrepresented women artists.”
As part of the announcement, the Biennale also revealed that the exhibition will explore four different sub-themes: “Luminous Halo positions the spirit of Gwangju as a source of inspiration and model for resistance and solidarity; Ancestral Voices highlights transnational artistic approaches for engaging and interpreting traditions to question and challenge modernist ideas; Transient Sovereignty considers the ways in which post-colonial and de-colonial artistic thinking have developed in relation to issues such as migration and diaspora; and Planetary Times explores the potentials and limits of a ‘planetary vision’ on ecological and environmental justice,” according to the release.
The current list of participating artists follows below.
Larry Achiampong
Abbas Akhavan
Farah Al Qasimi
Tarek Atoui
Bakhyt Bubikanova
María Magdalena Campos-Pons
Chang Jia
Latifa Echakhch
James T. Hong
Sky Hopinka
Huong Dodinh
Tess Jaray
Kang Yeon-gyun
Naiza Khan
Yuki Kihara
Christine Sun Kim
Kira Kim
Kim Kulim
Minjung Kim
Soungui Kim
Emily Kame Kngwarreye
Meiro Koizumi
Abdoulaye Konaté
Chila Kumari Singh Burman
Lee Kun-Yong
Lee Seung-taek
Kim Lim
Candice Lin
Tanya Lukin Linklater
Liu Jianhua
Guadalupe Maravilla
Noé Martínez
Mata Aho Collective
Mayunkiki
Alan Michelson
Malgorzata Mirga-Tas
Naeem Mohaiemen
Yuko Mohri
Betty Muffler
Aliza Nisenbaum
Lucia Nogueira
Oh Suk Kuhn
Oh Yoon
Oum Jeong Soon
Pangrok Sulap
Sopheap 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 Zink Yi