Korea (Republic of) 2026

Title: Liberation Space: Fortress/Nest
Commissioner: Arts Council Korea
Curator: Binna Choi
Exhibitors: Goen Choi, Hyeree Ro

Commissioned by ARKO (Arts Council Korea), the Korean Pavilion announces its team and vision for the 61st International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale (2026). Curator Binna Choi leads the project’s concept and organisation, inviting Seoul-based Goen Choi and New York-based Hyeree Ro as the two main participating artists. The Pavilion is conceived as a living monument, referred to as a “Liberation Space”.

All three collaborators bring diverse experience spanning translocal curation, the praxis of the commons, sculptural intervention and performance, exploring relationships between materiality, body, space and language.

In a statement, Binna Choi notes recent political events in South Korea, including an abrupt declaration of martial law and subsequent months of nationwide impeachment rallies amid a divided polity. In response, the project reflects on the post-liberation period following Japanese colonial rule, often described as “Liberation Space”, considering its evolution, continuity and transnational potential within contemporary geopolitics.

The artists engage the Pavilion’s architectural form and position within the Giardini as active elements within the project, transforming them into shifting fields of sensory, intellectual and social action. Conceived as both “fortress” and “nest”, the Pavilion hosts additional voices and narratives through a programme of fellows and an expanded network, extending it into a structure of ongoing dialogue, care and solidarity.