Korea Pavilion at Venice Biennale 2026 Showcases Liberation Space
The Korea Arts Council (KCAC) has announced plans for the Korea Pavilion at the 61st Venice Biennale in 2026. The exhibition, titled Liberation Space, is curated by artistic director Choi Bit-na and centers on artists Go-eun Choi and Hye-ri No, with contributions from fellows across literature and music, including novelist Han Kang and musician-artist Lee Rang. The Venice presentation will be part of Korea’s ongoing participation in the world’s most prestigious international art event.
At a planning briefing in Seoul, Choi Bit-na described Liberation Space as a response to lingering tensions even after a new democratic government took office following Korea’s 12·3 decree era. She said the project seeks to imagine a space beyond nationalist boundaries that fosters inclusion and solidarity on a global scale, reflecting how memory and democracy shape contemporary art.
No Hye-ri’s installation, Bearing, uses translucent organza to create a multiplicity of spaces within the gallery, forming eight distinct stations. The exhibition plan characterizes the Korea Pavilion as a Liberation Space Monument with two kinetic qualities—an interior fortress and a nesting space—evoking how memory and shelter can interact in post-dictatorship societies. Go-eun Choi contributes a component titled Meridian, which decorates the building’s exterior and interior with fragments of copper pipes.
The eight stations in Bearing will host works by the fellows and collaborators around themes of mourning, memory, future outlook, and daily life. The mourning station features a piece by Han Kang titled Funeral. The sharing station presents music written and composed by Lee Rang, alongside texts and seeds contributed by farmer-activist Kim Hu-ju. The memory station showcases a woodcut series by Rwandan-born artist Christian Niameta and photographs by Hwang Ye-ji documenting the 12·3 period.
This edition marks Korea’s first cross-national collaboration with the Japan Pavilion since the Korea Pavilion’s 1995 inception. The organizers say they will invite domestic and international groups working on Liberation Space to form a network, with further details to be revealed at a 2027 retrospective at the ARKO Art Center in Seoul.
Venice Biennale organizers describe the event as the art world’s equivalent of the Olympics, with parallel exhibitions and a robust national pavilion program running from May to November. The 61st edition’s main exhibition, In Minor Keys, is curated by the late Ko-yo Kuo, with 111 participating teams. Among Korea’s contributions to the main exhibition are Yo-i, an artist based in Jeju; Michael Joo, a Korean-American artist born in New York; and Gala Foras-Kim, a Korean-Colombian artist.