gwangju

Gwangju Biennale, Unbounded, Takes Off

"Sediments, Sentiments (Figures of Speech," a huge installation piece by artist Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla, is on display at Gwangju Biennale.

/ Courtesy of Gwangju Biennale

By Cathy Rose A. Garcia
Staff Reporter

GWANGJU ― Expectations ran high for the 7th Gwangju Biennale, as Korea's most well-known art event opened Friday.

The biennale, ``Annual Report: A Year in Exhibitions,'' has always attracted attention, for its lack of an overall theme, something which the artistic director Okwui Enwezor still had to explain even during the press conference Thursday.

``The theme is not the only way where one can telegraph ideas especially in contemporary art, which is very diverse. I thought what we needed for this particular biennale was to have a conceptual structure that would not limit our view through idiomatic structures… We didn't want to have constraints,'' Enwezor said.

Having no overall theme seems to have worked for the Gwangju Biennale, since the curatorial team chose art works based on their merit and quality and not just because they fit a certain theme.

Gwangju has turned into a city filled with art: the works of 127 artists from 36 countries are shown not just inside the Biennale Hall, Gwangju Museum of Art and Uijae Museum of Korean Art, but also in the movie theater Cinema Gwangju and Daein market in the downtown area. Visitors may find themselves needing more than a day to fully enjoy the intriguing exhibits.

When asked to give his recommendations for ``must-see'' art works at the biennale, Enwezor said: ``It is impossible. I think each work or project should be given equal attention. That is the only way to understand the biennale. This is not speed dating.''

At the Biennale Hall, many of the works have a ``performance'' aspect that needs to be experienced firsthand. South African artist Joachim Schoenfeldt's sculpture of taxidermied animals will greet visitors, as group of musicians play live music. Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla's ``Sediments, Sentiments,'' a huge installation made of foam and white plaster, also features live singers giving fragments of speeches of the likes of the Dalai Lama and George W. Bush.

At the Gwangju Museum of Art, visitors can explore the ground-breaking works of American artist Gordon Matta Clark and Southeast Asian experimental art, which both evolved in the 1970s. Enwezor said this shows how artists working in the same milieu are geographically apart but have similarities.

``The section `Turns in Tropics: Artist-Curator' is something unique because many in the West think the art scene in Southeast Asia was mere imitation, but in the 1970s, it developed on its own as a response to their own particular social context,'' curator Patrick Flores told The Korea Times.

Surrounded by the lush greenery at Mt. Mudeung, the Uijae Museum of Art features photographs of 1970s punk bands by Bruce Conner and voyeurs in Tokyo's parks by Kohei Yoshiyuki and Koki Tanaka's vividly colorful installation of every day objects. Those with a sweet tooth may find it hard to resist Mariana Bunimov's ``Rancho (Chocolate Shack)," made of pure chocolate.

Also on display at the Uijae Museum are the delicate works of Uijae Huh Baikryun, a master of traditional Korean art, whom the museum is named after.

The Daein traditional market is the setting for the Bokdukbang Project. According to curator Park Sung-hyen, bokdukbang is an ``old-fashioned'' Korean term used to refer to a place where people can share information and advice.

The Bokdukbang project aims to replicate the character of the bokdukbang as a venue for exchange of information between the artists and the public. At the market, Korean artists set up their stalls, alongside real shops selling fruits, fish, vegetables and other dry goods.

The airwaves of Gwangju will be filled with biennale flavor thanks to RADIOapartment 22: Gwangju, a radio station set up at the Biennale Hall. It will broadcast interviews, discussions, music and sound works throughout the duration of the biennale. R22 is a project started by curator Abdellah Karroum in Morocco, as its first radio station dedicated to art and culture.

Gwangju Biennale lives up to its reputation as one of the premiere art events in Asia, but it faces stiff competition with other biennales in Asia opening in the next two weeks. Enwezor believes it is only proof that the ``21st century will be the Asian century.''

``I don't think it is a competition among biennales. We have 10 international art events opening in Asia this month. This is an immense privilege for this region to have so many exhibits open. There are very few artists repeating in the biennales, this is encouraging and it shows the diversity of the art and seems to shatter the notion that biennales are all the same,'' he said.

Gwangju Biennale runs through Nov. 9. The one-day pass is 12,000 won for adults, 5,000 won for students and 2,500 won for children. A multiple day pass is 30,000 won for adults, 20,000 won for students and 10,000 won for children.

The biennale's Web site www.gb.co.kr (English, Korean) contains detailed information on how to go to Gwangju as well as how to get around the different sites of the biennale.

cathy@koreatimes.co.kr