16th Gwangju Biennale Focuses on Change and Practice in South Korea
Ho Tzu Nyen, the artistic director of the 16th Gwangju Biennale, and a team of curators announced the theme and exhibition plan at a press briefing in Seoul’s Centropolis in Gongpyeong-dong on the morning of the 13th. The event marks the artists’ collective effort to shape the forthcoming edition, which runs from September 5 to November 15.
The biennale’s theme is anchored in a meditation on upheaval and renewal. It borrows a line from the famed German poet Rainer Maria Rilke, who wrote of needing to “change your life” after encounters with exalted sculpture in Paris. Organizers say the quote signals an interpretive frame: art’s transformative power in the face of today’s crises, and the question of how humans might be reshaped through creative action.
Ho Tzu Nyen described the theme as open-ended, even at times directive in tone, but without a fixed prescription. He said the idea invites the audience to participate in shaping change, turning the exhibition into a field where viewers become co-constructors rather than passive observers. The core keywords for this edition are “change” and “practice,” with a vision of visitors experiencing change at different scales and paces.
The 16th edition will bring together about 41 to 45 participating artists, the smallest roster in the biennale’s history. Rather than presenting a catalog of individual works, organizers intend to foreground works that distill lived experience from the artists’ personal lives, forming concentrated, high-impact interventions rather than a large survey.
Among the commissioned works, the GB Commission will include a collaboration between Kwon Byung-joon and Park Chan-kyung, titled “Bulim.” They plan a sound installation built from metal donated by residents of Gwangju, melted into ritual tools used in a traditional rite known as “se-gollip.” The project ties local material culture to an experimental sound environment, linking community memory with contemporary art practice.
Other commissioned pieces incorporate historical and cross-cultural threads. Nam Hwa-yeon’s work revisits the late Joseon era when Catholicism faced persecution, exploring how women’s identities evolved within that religious history. American artist Jacqueline Kiomi Gook contributes a maze-like air structure and multi-channel techno-sound piece, alongside collaboration with other artists that expands the show’s sonic and spatial language. The roster also features works by Nam Hwa-yeon and others, including installations and new media forms that reflect the edition’s emphasis on embodied experience and inventive form.
The biennale’s curatorial team includes Choi Kyung-hwa, Park Ka-hee, Brian Kuan Wood (an editor and founder of the US-based contemporary art platform e-flux), and Park Chan-kyung, with the Singaporean artist Ho Tzu Nyen guiding the overall direction. For U.S. readers, Gwangju Biennale matters as a high-profile conduit for East Asian art and global contemporary practices, often shaping dialogues that travel to galleries, museums, and markets in North America. The involvement of international curators and platforms, along with new-media and performance-oriented works, signals potential visibility and collaboration opportunities for American institutions and artists seeking to engage with Korea’s vibrant art ecosystem.