Gwangju (Corea del Sud), 25 agosto 2026 – Nel pomeriggio del 5 settembre avrà luogo l’inaugurazione (dalle ore 18:00 alle ore 21:00), dal 6 al 14 settembre (dal martedì al sabato dalle ore 10:00 alle ore 18:00) e dal 15 al 29 settembre (dal giovedì al sabato dalle ore 13:00 alle ore 18:00) l’esposizione verrà aperta al pubblico; il programma di performance e workshop verrà reso noto in seguito. La Mente Apolide Mind Pavilion riunirà artisti provenienti da Asia, Africa, Europa, Sud e Nord America, le cui pratiche affrontano temi quali movimento, memoria, identità, suono, ecologia, tecnologia e conoscenza collettiva. Piuttosto che rappresentare una nazione, il Padiglione propone un modo diverso di concepire lo scambio internazionale, fondandolo sulle relazioni piuttosto che sui confini.
PADIGLIONE DELLA MENTE APOLIDE: NÉ QUI NÉ LÀ, MA OVUNQUE
Anziché configurarsi come una mostra permanente, il Padiglione si sviluppa come una costellazione di punti di appoggio temporanei che collegano artisti, comunità e luoghi. Ognuno di essi diviene al contempo un incontro locale e parte di una più ampia conversazione translocale, dove contatto, ospitalità, collaborazione ed esperienze condivise hanno la precedenza sulla rappresentazione nazionale. Mediante installazioni, immagini in movimento, suoni, performance, workshop, incontri con gli artisti, passeggiate di quartiere, pasti condivisi, trasmissioni radiofoniche e incontri informali, il Padiglione esplora come la pratica artistica possa creare spazi di dialogo tra storie, culture e geografie diverse. Il suono funge da uno dei fili conduttori, non come mezzo prescritto, ma come invito ad ascoltare i luoghi, gli altri e le condizioni da cui scaturisce ogni incontro.
16TH GWANGJU BIENNALE: STATELESS MIND PAVILLON
Pavilion Exhibition, Details: Stateless Mind Pavilion, Neither Here nor There, but Everywhere – The Stateless Mind Pavilion brings together artists from Asia, Africa, Europe and South and North America, whose practices engage questions of movement, memory, identity, sound, ecology, technology, and collective knowledge. Rather than representing a nation, the Pavilion proposes another way of imagining international exchange one grounded in relationships rather than borders. Instead of functioning as a fixed exhibition, the Pavilion unfolds as a constellation of temporary relay points connecting artists, communities, and places. Each relay becomes both a local gathering and part of a wider translocal conversation, where encounters, hospitality, collaboration, and shared experiences take precedence over national representation. Through installations, moving image, sound, performance, workshops, artist talks, neighbourhood walks, shared meals, radio broadcasts, and informal gatherings, the Pavilion explores how artistic practice can create spaces for dialogue across different histories, cultures, and geographies. Sound functions as one of the connecting threads, not as a prescribed medium, but as an invitation to listen to places, to one another, and to the conditions from which each encounter emerges.
NEITHER HERE NOR THERE, BUT EVERYWHERE
Inspired by Bertolt Brecht’s vision of radio as a reciprocal medium rather than a one-way channel of communication, the Pavilion embraces exchange over transmission. In an age of digital connectivity that often produces isolation, the project asks how communication might once again become participatory, collaborative, and locally grounded. Building on this, the Pavilion will host an international research program, Poetic Economies of the Non-State, convened by the Center for Arts, Design, and Social Research, which will continue through early 2027. Resonating with the 16th Gwangju Biennale’s theme, You Must Change Your Life, the Stateless Mind Pavilion remains unfinished, adaptive, and shaped by those who participate in it. Rather than presenting a single narrative, it offers an evolving ecology of encounters in which each local gesture contributes to a larger conversation while retaining its own specificity.
PARTECIPATING ARTIST
Tamara Al-Mashouk, Susana Pilar Delahante Matienzo, Sibonelo Gumede & Nombuso Mathibela, Sheung Yiu, Saiful Razman & Yahya Torek, Ronnie Bahari, Mónica Teresa Ortiz, Miguel Keerveld, Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen, Grace Xu, Fadly Sabran & Tumbuktikus Collective, Dalida Maria Benfield, Chris Bratton, Ariel William Orah, Amir Zainorin.
CURATOR PROFILE
The Pavilion is developed collaboratively by Amir Zainorin with Dalida María Benfield and Chris Bratton of the Center for Arts, Design, and Social Research (CAD+SR), and Fadly Sabran of Kapallorek Art Space. Their combined practices span artistic research, curating, socially engaged art, moving image, publishing and translocal collaboration. The curatorial approach privileges exchange over singular authorship and treats the exhibition as an evolving structure shaped by artists, partners, participants, and place.
AMIR ZAINORIN
Amir Zainorin is a Malaysian contemporary artist, curator, and founder of Jambatan and Stateless Mind, an artist-led initiatives that foster international exchange, mobility, and collaborative artistic practice beyond national representation. As curator of the Stateless Mind Pavilion, he brings together artists from diverse cultural and geographic backgrounds to develop a translocal platform rooted in dialogue, collaboration, and shared knowledge. His curatorial and artistic practice spans installation, performance, sound, drawing, and socially engaged art, investigating relationships between memory, migration, identity, observation, and place. Through long-term engagement with communities, his projects create spaces for exchange and collective inquiry, transforming everyday materials and encounters into participatory experiences. His work has been presented internationally, including at the Venice Biennale, Museo delle Mura (Rome), and the National Art Gallery of Malaysia.
DALIDA MARÍA BENFIELD
Dalida María Benfield, Ph.D., is an artist, filmmaker, and cultural organizer afloat in global information ebbs and flows. She researches and activates feminist and post-/decolonial knowledges, pedagogies, and creative action as the co-founder and Research and Program Director at the Center for Arts, Design, and Social Research (CAD+SR), Boston/Helsinki. She co-founded the media activist collectives, Video Machete and the Women’s International Information Project, and is currently a co-founder and member of the transnational feminist collective, the Institute of (im)Possible Subjects, and a member of the Institute for Performance and Film Expanded. She is formerly Chair of Art Education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her films and installations, often collectively produced, have exhibited internationally, including the New Museum, New York, and most recently at Forum Box, Helsinki. Her numerous publications, in English, Spanish, and Portuguese, include Affecting Technologies/Machining Intelligences (co-editor and contributing author, CAD+SR, 2023) and she was co-Executive Editor of Ou Ning’s book, The Agritopianists (CAD+SR, 2026).
CHRISTOPHER BRATTON
Christopher Bratton is an artist, writer, and educator, co-founder and Executive Director of the Center for Arts, Design, and Social Research (2017), and most recently, Professor of Practice at Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland (2017-2023). In installation, performance, digital media, and convenings, his work explores the role of media and pedagogy in interrogating the economic, political, and affective structures of the present and the vital need to create other experimental pedagogical spaces to realize different futures. In practice, this includes working within formal educational institutions, between them, but also outside and beside them, and always, to understand these spaces as interrelated and integral to society as a whole.
FADLY SABRAN
Fadly Sabran is a Malaysian media artist, curator, and academic whose practice explores moving image culture, experimental media, and contemporary visual narratives. Working across video, sound, installation, and experimental film, his projects investigate memory, cultural identity, and the evolving relationship between technology, society, and place. He is the founder of Kapallorek Art Space (est. 2014), an independent platform dedicated to experimental art and new media practices in Malaysia, fostering exhibitions, screenings, artist residencies, and international collaborations. In 2020, together with Shahrul Hisham and Haris Abadi, he co-founded Tumbuktikus, an online experimental platform that explores internet-based artistic practices, digital interventions, animation, net culture, and cyberpunk aesthetics through a spirit of playful yet critical experimentation.
ASSOCIATE CURATORS
ANNA CUOMO
Anna Cuomo is an Italian researcher, editor, and curator specializing in contemporary art. She is Head of Publications and Curatorial Research at Museo Madre in Naples, where she oversees the museum’s editorial programme, curatorial research, and institutional collaborations. Previously, she worked at GAMeC in Bergamo and the Fondazione Morra Greco in Naples, contributing to exhibitions by artists including Pratchaya Pinthong, Mark Dion, Jimmie Durham, Judith Hopf, Laure Prouvost, and Darren Bader. Cuomo regularly writes on contemporary art, contributing to the Treccani Encyclopedia of Contemporary Art and Flash Art. Her research focuses on collective artistic practices and the cultural dynamics of Southeast Asia. In 2024, she led Identity Mosaics for Community Ecosystems, supported by the Italian Council of the Italian Ministry of Culture, culminating in the exhibition In Between Worlds at Kapallorek Art Space in Malaysia, developed in dialogue with the Stateless Mind Pavilion. Her forthcoming book on collectivism in contemporary art, with a focus on ASEAN countries, will be published in 2026.
CAMILLA BOEMIO
Camilla Boemio is an Italian curator, writer, and theorist whose interdisciplinary practice explores contemporary art through critical theory, ecology, feminism, and socially engaged artistic practices. Based in Rome, she has curated exhibitions and research projects internationally, including the Maldives Pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale, the first Nigerian Pavilion at the 15th Venice Biennale of Architecture, and the official collateral event Pera + Flora + Fauna at the 59th Venice Biennale. In 2018, she participated in the VVM Project at Tate Liverpool. In 2022, she was awarded the Harald Szeemann Curatorial Prize by the International Association of Curators of Contemporary Art (IKT). In 2026, she serves as Co-Associate Curator of the first Nauru National Pavilion, AIM Inundated: Imagining Life After Land, at the 61st Venice Biennale. As founder of AAC Platform, her work brings together artists, researchers, and institutions through interdisciplinary collaborations addressing ecology, migration, identity, and social transformation. Alongside her curatorial practice, she writes extensively on contemporary art and contributes to international publications and research projects.
ARTIST PROFILE
TAMARA AL-MASHOUK
Tamara Al-Mashouk is a multidisciplinary visual artist whose practice spans sculpture, performance, video, and installation. Drawing on her Saudi-Palestinian heritage, her work explores memory, displacement, hospitality, and the body as a site where personal and collective histories converge. Through strategies of hosting and participation, she creates spaces for encounter, reflection, and care. Recent solo exhibitions include I don’t want to stab the beast I just want to go home (Incubator, London, 2024) and I’d search forever, I want to remember (Frieze No.9 Cork Street, London, and The Citadel, Dover, 2023). She has also exhibited at 198 Contemporary Arts and Learning, Gallery North, and Incubator, London.
SUSANA PILAR DELAHANTE MATIENZO
Susana Pilar Delahante Matienzo (b. 1984, Havana, Cuba) is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice combines photography, performance, installation, and social engagement. Grounded in Black feminist and decolonial perspectives, her work investigates gender-based violence, memory, the body, and the social structures that shape lived experience. Through participatory processes and symbolic visual strategies, she examines hidden histories, collective trauma, and the relationship between personal testimony and public memory. Her work invites audiences to become active participants, using art as a means of revealing overlooked realities and creating spaces for dialogue and social transformation.
SHEUNG YIU
Sheung Yiu (Hong Kong/Finland) is an image-based artist and researcher whose practice explores the relationship between photography, emerging imaging technologies, artificial intelligence, and human perception. Working across photography, video, installation, and artist books, he collaborates with researchers from multiple disciplines to examine how images shape contemporary knowledge and memory. He is currently a doctoral researcher in photography at Aalto University, Finland, and was selected as FOAM Talent 2024–2025 and a member of FUTURES. His work has been exhibited internationally at venues including FOAM Museum (Amsterdam), Museum Folkwang (Essen), Museum of Contemporary Art (Zagreb), Tai Kwun Contemporary (Hong Kong), and the Benaki Museum (Athens).
SAIFUL RAZMAN & YAHYA TOREK
Saiful Razman and Yahya Torek bring together contemporary installation practice and Indigenous knowledge in a collaborative exploration of material, landscape, and cultural memory. Saiful Razman (Malaysia, b. 1980) is known for transforming everyday materials such as medical gauze, tissue paper, and found objects into large-scale installations and collages that examine fragility, accumulation, and perception. A recipient of the 2021 UOB Southeast Asian Painting of the Year award, his work has been widely exhibited across Asia and beyond. Yahya Torek, a Semai artist, photographer, and cultural advocate from Perak, documents the biodiversity and cultural heritage of the Orang Asli while advocating for Indigenous rights and environmental conservation. Together, their collaboration creates a dialogue between contemporary artistic experimentation and Indigenous ecological knowledge, foregrounding the enduring relationship between people, material, and the natural world.
RONNIE BAHARI
Ronnie Bahari is a Temuan–Semai photographer, musician, cultural advocate, and activist based in Perak, Malaysia. His multidisciplinary practice combines photography, traditional music, and community engagement to preserve, document, and promote the cultural heritage of the Orang Asli while strengthening Indigenous representation. Working from an insider’s perspective, his photography offers intimate portrayals of Orang Asli lives, identities, and relationships to the land. His work has been exhibited internationally, including at the 59th Venice Biennale. As President of Persatuan Kebudayaan dan Kesenian Orang Asal Perak (PKKOAP), he leads initiatives that support the transmission of Indigenous knowledge, music, craftsmanship, and cultural traditions through workshops, performances, festivals, and community programmes.
PHOSHOZA (SIBONELO GUMEDE & NOMBUSO MATHIBELA)
Phoshoza is the collaborative practice of Johannesburg-based cultural workers Sibonelo Gumede and Nombuso Mathibela. Working across sound, research, performance, and public engagement, their practice explores memory, repair, anti-colonial histories, and the politics of listening. Bringing together urbanism, archival research, sonic experimentation, and Black feminist thought, they create projects that examine how sound and collective memory can foster new forms of dialogue across places and communities. Their recent work includes the Ways of Repair residency (2024–25), Hi! Congo (2024), and Reframing Colonial Legacies: A Sonic Journey from Johannesburg to London (2024).
MÓNICA TERESA ORTIZ
Mónica Teresa Ortiz is a diasporic Mexican poet, scholar, and critic born, raised, and based in Texas. They are the author of the poetry collection, Book of Provocations, from Texas based Host Publications (2024); their work has appeared in The Brooklyn Rail, Fence Magazine, and they have been a visiting research fellow with the Center for Arts, Design, and Social Research. Currently, mónica is a Ph.D. student in Creative Writing at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, Texas.
MIGUEL EDKE KEERVELD
Miguel EdKe Keerveld (b. 1982, Paramaribo, Suriname; based in São Paulo, Brazil) is an artist and researcher whose practice bridges artistic research and social engagement. Drawing on Caribbean and Latin American perspectives, his work explores decolonisation, collective care, identity, and inclusive forms of knowledge production. Working across installation, participatory projects, and curatorial initiatives, he creates platforms for dialogue and social transformation. Originally trained as a civil engineer, Keerveld transitioned into conceptual art to investigate the intersections of community, sustainability, and cultural memory. He is the founder of Alakondre: A Space in Time and has received awards including the Silvia de Groot Fund (2021), the CATAPULT SHAR Artist Residency Award (2020), and the U.S. Department of State Alumni Engagement Innovation Fund (2017).
LILIBETH CUENCA RASMUSSEN
Lilibeth Cuenca Rasmussen (b. 1970, Manila, Philippines; lives and works in Copenhagen, Denmark) is an internationally acclaimed performance artist working across performance, video, installation, and sculpture. Her practice explores identity, migration, gender, cultural hybridity, and belonging, often drawing from her Filipino-Danish background to examine how personal narratives intersect with social and political histories. She has presented performances and exhibitions at major international institutions including Tate Modern (London), Brooklyn Museum (New York), KIASMA Museum of Contemporary Art (Helsinki), SMK – National Gallery of Denmark, Copenhagen Contemporary, and the Venice Biennale. Since 2019, she has been Professor of Performance and Time-Based Art at the University of Bergen, Norway.
GREACE XU
Grace Xu (b. 2001, New Orleans, US) is an interdisciplinary artist whose practice spans installation, performance, moving image, ceramics, and socially engaged art. Her work explores migration, ecology, memory, and cultural belonging, often bringing together material experimentation with community-based collaboration. A graduate of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), she has developed projects across the United States, China, Malaysia, and Italy. In 2026, she performed as part of the Stateless Mind Pavilion at Museo delle Mura, Rome. Recent exhibitions include Carrier Chronologies (UCLA, Los Angeles, 2024), …like ashes like seeds like stars (Little Gallery, Los Angeles, 2023), and 3!2!1! Play! (P8 Art Space, Changsha, China, 2025). She has participated in international residencies including Lintas Benua: Crossing Continents, the Center for Arts, Design and Social Research, and The Pottery Workshop Jingdezhen. Her practice reflects an ongoing interest in building relationships across cultures through collective making, storytelling, and shared experience.
FADLY SABRAN & TUMBUKTIKUS
Fadly Sabran is a Malaysian media artist, curator, and academic whose practice explores moving image culture, experimental media, and contemporary visual narratives. Working across video, sound, installation, and experimental film, his projects investigate memory, cultural identity, and the evolving relationship between technology, society, and place. He is the founder of Kapallorek Art Space (est. 2014), an independent platform dedicated to experimental art and new media practices in Malaysia, fostering exhibitions, screenings, artist residencies, and international collaborations. In 2020, together with Shahrul Hisham and Haris Abadi, he co-founded Tumbuktikus, an online experimental platform that explores internet-based artistic practices, digital interventions, animation, net culture, and cyberpunk aesthetics through a spirit of playful yet critical experimentation.
DALIDA MARÍA BENFIELD
Dalida María Benfield, Ph.D. (Panama/US/Finland) is an artist, theorist, and cultural organizer who researches and activates feminist and post/decolonial thought, pedagogy, and creative action in global information ebbs and flows. Her work initiates collective processes of knowledge production and autonomous cultural interventions. Digital cinemas and archives, and augmented and virtual realities, are repositioned in her work as ancestral technologies to be transformed. She is the co-founder and Research Director of the Center for Arts, Design, and Social Research (CAD+SR), an international, global majority-focused platform supporting transdisciplinary collaborative inquiry through fellowships, residencies, and publications.
CHRISTOPHER BRATTON
Christopher Bratton is an artist, writer, and educator, co-founder and Executive Director of the Center for Arts, Design, and Social Research (2017), and most recently, Professor of Practice at Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland (2017-2023). In installation, performance, digital media, and convenings, his work explores the role of media and pedagogy in interrogating the economic, political, and affective structures of the present and the vital need to create other experimental pedagogical spaces to realize different futures. In practice, this includes working within formal educational institutions, between them, but also outside and beside them, and always, to understand these spaces as interrelated and integral to society as a whole.
ARIEL WILLIAM ORAH
Ariel William Orah is a Berlin-based Indonesian artist, community catalyst, and cultural practitioner. Born in Bandung, Indonesia, and based in Berlin for the past 13 years, Orah focuses on diasporic socially engaged art, with research interests in social and climate injustice, as well as the trilogy of identity, memory, and scarcity. Informed by an academic background in economics, sustainability, and empathy design, Orah’s interdisciplinary approach critically engages with systemic structures while addressing the emotional and cultural dimensions of displacement and identity.
AMIR ZAINORIN
Amir Zainorin is a Malaysian contemporary artist, curator, and founder of Jambatan and Stateless Mind, two artist-led initiatives that foster international exchange, mobility, and collaborative artistic practice beyond national representation. As curator of the Stateless Mind Pavilion, he brings together artists from diverse cultural and geographic backgrounds to develop a translocal platform rooted in dialogue, collaboration, and shared knowledge. His artistic practice spans installation, performance, sound, drawing, and socially engaged art, investigating relationships between memory, migration, identity, observation, and place. Through long-term engagement with communities, his projects transform everyday materials and encounters into participatory works that invite reflection and exchange. His work has been presented internationally, including at the Venice Biennale, Museo delle Mura (Rome), and the National Art Gallery of Malaysia.
PAVILLON ORGANIZER
About Pavilion Commissioner: Amir Zainorin is the Pavilion Commissioner and artistic initiator of Stateless Mind Pavilion. Through Jambatan, founded in Copenhagen in 2008, he has developed artist-led exhibitions, festivals and international collaborations connecting Southeast Asia, Europe and wider translocal networks. Stateless Mind emerged from these activities and evolved into a mobile pavilion after the project encountered restrictions around the term pavilion during preparations for a Venice Biennale collateral event in 2022. It now functions as a self-defined platform situated outside official national representation. The Pavilion at the 16th Gwangju Biennale is co-organized with Dalida María Benfield and Chris Bratton of the Center for Arts, Design, and Social Research (US/Finland) and Fadly Sabran of Kapallorek Artspace (Malaysia).
ABOUT VENUE PROVIDER
The Stateless Mind Pavilion is presented at Gallery SEEUM in Gwangju. The venue provides the setting for the Pavilion’s programme of exhibitions, installations, performances, artist talks, workshops, and public gatherings. Artwork & Installation Image Download Link: https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/si5r636tsujokvfmrl3xy/APqozXshQo3jR9ihPFvAOSk?rlkey=rus12v6etslas9n1l7hrqzsn7&st=g04fq12g&dl=0
GWANGJU BIENNALE FOUNDATION
About the Gwangju Biennale: founded in 1994 to commemorate the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement and the 50th anniversary of Korea’s liberation, the Gwangju Biennale has established itself as Asia’s leading contemporary art biennale. Embodying the Gwangju Spirit, which encompasses the principles of revolution, democracy, and community, the Biennale fosters international cultural exchange and drives critical discourse in contemporary art. Over the past three decades, the Gwangju Biennale has challenged Western-centric art narratives, championed cultural diversity, and tackled pressing global issues such as climate change, race, gender, and the crises of democracy. Centered in the Biennale Hall within Gwangju’s Jungoe Park, the event has elevated the city of 1.4 million into a vibrant cultural hub of East Asia, traditionally celebrated as the “City of Art, Cuisine, and Culture.
광주비엔날레는 1994년 5•18 광주 민주화 운동을 기념하고 대한민국 광복 50주년을 맞이하여 창설된 이래, 아시아를 대표하는 현대미술 비엔날레로서 독보적인 입지를 구축해 왔다. 변혁과 민주주의, 그리고 공동체 정신을 아우르는 ‘광주정신’을 실천적 가치로 승화시키며, 동시대 미술의 담론을 형성하고 국제 문화 교류를 촉진해 왔다.
지난 30년 동안 광주비엔날레는 서구 중심의 미술 내러티브에 끊임없이 도전하며 문화적 다양성을 옹호해 왔고, 기후 위기, 인종, 젠더, 민주주의의 후퇴 등 인류 보편의 글로벌 의제들을 비판적 시각으로 다루어 왔다. 광주시 중외공원 내 비엔날레 전시관을 중심으로 개최되는 본 행사는 인구 140만 명의 도시 광주를 예향(藝鄕)과 미향(味鄕)의 문화도시를 넘어, 동아시아 현대미술의 핵심 거점으로 발돋움하게 했다.
Founded on the “Gwangju Spirit” of the May 18 Democratization Movement: the Gwangju Biennale was established in 1994 to heal the historical trauma of the tragic military suppression during the May 18 Gwangju Democratization Movement of 1980. It honors the “Gwangju Spirit” by employing art as a vital medium to convey universal messages of democracy, human rights, and peace to a global audience.
1994년 창설된 광주비엔날레는 1980년 5•18 광주 민주화 운동 과정에서 발생한 역사적 비극과 상처를 예술로서 치유하고자 출발했다. 비엔날레는 민주, 인권, 평화라는 ‘광주정신’을 예술을 매개로 새롭게 조명하며, 이를 인류 보편의 가치로 확장해 전 세계 관객에게 전하고 있다.
One of the Top 5 Biennials in the World: the Gwangju Biennale has been recognized by Artnet as one of the top five biennials internationally, standing alongside the Venice Biennale, Kassel Documenta, the Whitney Biennial, and Manifesta. Artnet highlighted the Gwangju Biennale’s exceptional attendance numbers, robust operational framework, international influence, and rigorous curatorial expertise as key factors driving its high global stature.
광주비엔날레는 미술 전문 미디어 ‘아트넷(Artnet)’에 의해 베니스 비엔날레, 카셀 도쿠멘타, 휘트니 비엔날레, 마니페스타와 어깨를 나란히 하는 ‘세계 5대 비엔날레’ 중 하나로 선정되며 그 국제적 위상을 공고히 했다. 이는 광주비엔날레의 압도적인 관람객 동원력과 탄탄한 재정적 운영 모델, 국제적 영향력, 그리고 전문적인 큐레이터십을 세계적으로 인정받은 결과다.
The 16th Gwangju Biennale: with Ho Tzu Nyen at the helm as Artistic Director, the 16th Gwangju Biennale aims to foreground collective artistic practices and solidarities that respond to the intersecting crises of our time, from climate change and unpredictable pandemics to democratic backsliding, while moving beyond the sense of individual paralysis these conditions provoke.
호추니엔 예술감독이 이끄는 제16회 광주비엔날레는 기후 위기, 예측 불가능한 팬데믹, 민주주의의 후퇴 등 인류가 직면한 교차적 위기에 대응하는 ‘집단적 예술 실천과 연대’를 전면에 내세운다. 이를 통해 작가들은 현대인들이 마주한 구조적 무력감을 극복하고 새로운 연대의 가능성을 모색할 예정이다.
«This edition will bring together the energies, propositions, practices, and ideas that have inspired and propelled me over the past two decades. It will be an opportunity to explore how the practice of artistic transformation resonates with Gwangju’s legacy of democratic change. Rather than delivering a single message, this Biennale will seek to generate propositions for change that are shared and shaped by all of us». (Artistic Director Ho Tzu Nyen)
“이번 비엔날레는 지난 20년 동안 저에게 영감을 준 에너지와 실천들을 한데 모으는 자리가 될 것이며, 예술적 전환의 실천이 광주의 민주적 변혁 유산과 어떻게 공명하는지 탐구하는 기회가 될 것이다. 단 하나의 메시지를 전달하기보다 우리 모두가 공유하고 함께 만들어 가는 변화를 위한 제안들을 창출하고자 한다.” _호추니엔 예술감독
GWANGJU BIENNALE PAVILLON
About the Gwangju Biennale Pavilion: inaugurated in 2018 with the mission of fostering networks among domestic and international art and cultural institutions, the Gwangju Biennale Pavilion has driven a dynamic range of exhibitions and educational initiatives deeply rooted in local collaboration. This initiative not only deepens visitors’ engagement with art but also infuses the entire city with cultural inspiration. For the upcoming 16th Gwangju Biennale Pavilion in 2026, diverse countries, cities, and institutions from Asia, the Americas, and Europe will take part. These global art entities are set to present a dynamic spectrum of pavilions throughout Gwangju, spanning historic and cultural sites in Yanglim, Geumnam, Yongbong, and the Seogu/Gwangsan districts. Resonating with the 16th Gwangju Biennale’s main theme, You must change your life, these pavilions will curate distinct artistic narratives that reflect each institution’s own perspectives. Through these site-specific presentations, they will engage deeply with local citizens, connect with international audiences, and generate rich visual landscapes and discourse throughout the urban landscape.
2018년 국내외 미술 및 문화 기관의 네트워크 확장을 목표로 시작된 광주비엔날레 파빌리온은 지역사회와 긴밀히 소통하며 다양한 전시 및 교육 프로그램을 개발해 왔다. 이를 통해 관람객의 예술적 경험을 확장하는 것은 물론, 도시 전체에 새로운 활기를 불어넣고 있다.
오는 2026년 제16회 광주비엔날레 파빌리온에는 아시아, 미주, 유럽 대륙의 다양한 국가와 예술 기관들이 참여한다. 이 글로벌 예술 주체들은 양림권, 금남권, 용봉권, 서구•광산권역 등 광주 전역에서 다채로운 파빌리온을 선보일 예정이다. 특히 제16회 광주비엔날레의 핵심 주제인 너는 네 삶을 바꿔야 한다(You must change your life)와 공명하면서도, 각 기관의 다각적인 시선이 담긴 특색 있는 전시를 구축함으로써 시민들과 호흡하고 국제 관객과 소통하며, 도시 전역에 풍부한 시각적 경험과 담론을 생산해 낼 것이다.
Global Platform & Expansion: inaugurated in 2018 with the participation of the Palais de Tokyo (France), the Gwangju Biennale Pavilion has steadily expanded its reach to build robust networks between domestic and international art institutions. Following the integration of institutions such as the Kunsthaus Pasquart (Switzerland) in 2021, the initiative grew to 9 countries in 2023 and further expanded to encompass 32 participating countries, cities, and institutions by 2024. Looking ahead to 2026, the Pavilion is set to deepen collaborative programming between international institutions and the local Gwangju community, cementing its position as a premier global platform for cultural and artistic exchange.
2018년 프랑스 팔레 드 도쿄(Palais de Tokyo)에 참여하며 첫선을 보인 광주비엔날레 파빌리온 프로젝트는 지역과 국제 예술기관 간의 교류를 견인하며 성장을 거듭해 왔다. 2021년 스위스 쿤스트하우스 파스콰르트(Kunsthaus Pasquart) 등의 합류에 이어, 2023년에는 9개국으로 규모가 확대되었으며, 2024년에는 총 32개 국가 및 기관이 참여하는 성장을 이루었다. 2026년에는 해외 기관과 광주 지역 간의 연계 프로그램을 더욱 심화함으로써 명실상부한 글로벌 문화예술 교류의 거점 플랫폼으로 자리매김하고 있다.
LOCAL COLLABORATIONS
Moving beyond merely showcasing their national art, international participants work closely with Gwangju’s local artists and curators to conduct in-depth local research and present site-specific works. These collaborations have driven diverse practices, fostering cultural exchange with the art community in Yanglim, co-curating exhibitions in Geumnam’s historical sites, and collaborating with local artist residencies. Through these meaningful practices, the Pavilion expands both transcultural solidarity and aesthetic possibilities that transcend borders and generations.
파빌리온의 해외 참가자들은 자국의 시각예술을 소개하는 전시를 넘어, 광주 현지의 작가 및 큐레이터들과 긴밀히 협업하여 심층적인 로컬 리서치를 진행하고 이를 기반으로 한 신작들을 선보인다. 특히 광주 양림동의 예술 커뮤니티와 해외 참여 기관 간의 국제 문화 교류, 금남로의 역사적 건축 자산과 연계된 공동 전시 기획, 광주 지역 창작 스튜디오 및 레지던시 연계 프로그램 등 구체적이고 다채로운 실천을 통해 국가와 세대를 초월한 문화적 연대와 미학적 가능성을 넓히고 있다.
INFO E CONTATTI
pressletter@gwangjubiennale.org
gwangjubiennale.org
gwangjubiennalepavilion.org
@gwangjubiennalefoundation
광주비엔날레
@gwangjubiennale
#gwangjubiennale
#gbpavilion
