12th Gwangju Biennale: The Pavilion Project A Forum for International Exchange
The 12th Gwangju Biennale hosts for the first time a series of Pavilion Projects beginning with three leading international art institutions to connect the Gwangju region to a wider arts community. The Pavilion Project is a forum for exchange and promotion between countries to present emerging artists from their own countries alongside Korean artists.
“Today Will Happen”
Sep 6 – Oct 20, 2018
Open Tue – Sun 12pm – 6 m
Institution Palais de Tokyo
Venue Gwangju Civic Center
Curators Jean de Loisy, Kim Seong Won
Artists Berdaguer & Péjus, Yun Choi, Julien Creuzet, David Douard, Hao Ni, Michel Houellebecq, Tarik Kiswanson, Hayoun Kwon, Mire Lee, Louise Sartor, and Young-Gyu Jang
The exhibition “Today Will Happen” takes its title from Michel Houellebecq’s poem of the same name, published in “The Art of Struggle” in 1996. Houllelbecq’s poem, and the poet’s discussions about the poem are translated into Korean and introduced as a song. These elements become ingredients for a new visual art piece which shown for the first time at the exhibition.
“Fictional Frictions”
Sep 6 – Nov 11, 2018
Open Tue – Sun 10am – 5pm
Institution Helsinki International Artist Programme – HIAP
Venue Mugaksa Temple and Lotus Gallery
Curator Jenni Nurmenniemi
Artists Jungju An & Sojung Jun (as a duo Black Night), Maelee Lee and Mire Lee, Nestori Syrjälä, Elina Vainio
“Fictional Frictions” consists of three new commissions and two context-specific iterations of recent artworks by South Korean and Finnish artists. Their sculptural or sound-based installations open up spaces for questioning number of imagined borders: namely those between the past and the present, individual and collective, micro- and macrocosm. In subtle negotiation with the architecture and environment of the temple, the artworks form poetic-political entanglements that highlight co-dependencies and continuums instead of ruptures, breaks and clearly defined borders.
“Hothouse”
Sep 7 – Nov 11, 2018
Open Tue – Sun 10am – 6pm
Institution Philippine Contemporary Art Network – PCAN
Venues Leekangha Art Museum; Hothouse
Curator Patrick D. Flores
Artists Mark Salvatus, Indy Paredes, Dominic Mangila, Renz Lee, Lee Kang Ha, Lee Sehyun
The Philippine Contemporary Art Network presents 6 Korean and Filipino artists under the title “Hothouse”. The exhibition is planned by Patrick D. Flores, professor at the University of the Philippines and curator at the Vargas Museum. He served as curator of the 56th Venice Biennale’s Philippine Pavilion (2015) and as one of the curators of the Position Papers section of the 7th Gwangju Biennale (2008). The word ‘hothouse’ refers to a structure which triggers exceptionally rapid growth of plant life out of their natural season. A greenhouse is the contact zone between the natural and artificial and an environment made of glass. The exhibition focuses on the situation which takes place at the intersection of the emotional element, ‘hot’ and space, ‘house’. The exhibition takes place in two different venues: at the Lee Kang Ha Museum, the exhibition presents a large-scale work of Lee Kang Ha, a late painter who represented Gwangju local art scene. The exhibition at a newly-opening exhibition space in Gwangju showcases experimental small-scale new commissions created in Gwangju.
