The Korea Times
amn_close.png
amn_bl.png
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
amn_bl.png
Business
  • Tech
  • Bio
  • Companies
  • World Expo 2030
amn_bl.png
Finance
  • Companies
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Cryptocurrency
amn_bl.png
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to the Editor
amn_bl.png
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
amn_bl.png
Entertainment & Arts
  • K-pop
  • Films
  • Shows & Dramas
  • Music
  • Theater & Others
amn_bl.png
Sports
  • Hangzhou Asian Games
amn_bl.png
World
  • SCMP
  • Asia
amn_bl.png
Video
  • Korean Storytellers
  • POPKORN
  • Culture
  • People
  • News
amn_bl.png
Photos
  • Photo News
  • Darkroom
amn_NK.png amn_DR.png amn_LK.png amn_LE.png
  • bt_fb_on_2022.svgbt_fb_over_2022.svg
  • bt_twitter_on_2022.svgbt_twitter_over_2022.svg
  • bt_youtube_on_2022.svgbt_youtube_over_2022.svg
  • bt_instagram_on_2022.svgbt_instagram_over_2022.svg
The Korea Times
amn_close.png
amn_bl.png
National
  • Politics
  • Foreign Affairs
  • Multicultural Community
  • Defense
  • Environment & Animals
  • Law & Crime
  • Society
  • Health & Science
amn_bl.png
Business
  • Tech
  • Bio
  • Companies
  • World Expo 2030
amn_bl.png
Finance
  • Companies
  • Economy
  • Markets
  • Cryptocurrency
amn_bl.png
Opinion
  • Editorial
  • Columns
  • Thoughts of the Times
  • Cartoon
  • Today in History
  • Blogs
  • Tribune Service
  • Blondie & Garfield
  • Letter to the Editor
amn_bl.png
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
amn_bl.png
Entertainment & Arts
  • K-pop
  • Films
  • Shows & Dramas
  • Music
  • Theater & Others
amn_bl.png
Sports
  • Hangzhou Asian Games
amn_bl.png
World
  • SCMP
  • Asia
amn_bl.png
Video
  • Korean Storytellers
  • POPKORN
  • Culture
  • People
  • News
amn_bl.png
Photos
  • Photo News
  • Darkroom
amn_NK.png amn_DR.png amn_LK.png amn_LE.png
  • bt_fb_on_2022.svgbt_fb_over_2022.svg
  • bt_twitter_on_2022.svgbt_twitter_over_2022.svg
  • bt_youtube_on_2022.svgbt_youtube_over_2022.svg
  • bt_instagram_on_2022.svgbt_instagram_over_2022.svg
  • Login
  • Register
  • Login
  • Register
  • The Korea Times
  • search
  • all menu
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Photos
  • Video
  • World
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment & Art
  • Lifestyle
  • Finance
  • Business
  • National
  • North Korea
  • 1

    BTS stars shine brighter as solo artists

  • 3

    N. Korea holds politburo meeting to discuss Kim-Putin summit: KCNA

  • 5

    30 people purchased 8,000 homes: data

  • 7

    Rowoon leaves SF9 to focus on acting career

  • 9

    Korea urged to adopt China exit strategy amid hegemonic war

  • 11

    INTERVIEWPutin uses summit with NK leader to stop Seoul from helping Ukraine: expert

  • 13

    Netflix's 'Song of the Bandits' blends western action with Korean period series

  • 15

    Unfreezing of funds not likely to restore Korea-Iran ties

  • 17

    Seoul plans to build Jamsil Sports MICE Complex

  • 19

    Invasion of 'smart' albums

  • 2

    '30 Days' promises laughter, unlikely romance

  • 4

    North Korean escapees tell how nuclear tests ruined their health, hometown

  • 6

    ITZY's Lia takes break to put mental health first

  • 8

    USFK soldier, 2 women arrested for drug trafficking

  • 10

    Seventeen to drop 11th EP next month

  • 12

    Foreign ministry asks Japan to investigate case of Korean poisoned with bleach in Tokyo

  • 14

    Lamborghini driver suspect sent to prosecutors over parking dispute in Gangnam

  • 16

    BTS defies K-pop's 'seven-year curse'

  • 18

    Merck emphasizes digitalization in semiconductor market

  • 20

    National Assembly passes motion to arrest DPK chief

Close scrollclosebutton

Close for 24 hours

Open
  • The Korea Times
  • search
  • all menu
  • Login
  • Subscribe
  • Photos
  • Video
  • World
  • Sports
  • Opinion
  • Entertainment & Art
  • Lifestyle
  • Finance
  • Business
  • National
  • North Korea
Lifestyle
  • Travel & Food
  • Trends
  • People & Events
  • Books
  • Around Town
  • Fortune Telling
Fri, September 22, 2023 | 16:32
Fortune Telling
8th Gwangju Biennales humanism strikes heart, history
Posted : 2010-09-03 17:25
Updated : 2010-09-03 17:25
Print PreviewPrint Preview
Font Size UpFont Size Up
Font Size DownFont Size Down
  • facebook
  • twitter
  • kakaolink
  • whatsapp
  • reddit
  • mailto
  • link

``Visible World’’ by Peter Fischli and David Weiss is among works featured at the 8th Gwangju Biennale,ongoing through Nov. 7. The artwork features 3,000 small photographs, laid out across 15 light tables.
/ Korea Times photos by Ines Min

By Ines Min

GWANGJU ― This is going to take all day.

Five massive (though well organized) galleries, plus a national and folk museum. Indeed, this particular art event is one that takes a bit of stamina ― which is the whole point.

The 8th Gwangju Biennale opened Friday to a waiting world of artists, curators, aficionados and local residents, curious about this year’s exhibition halls and museums, each transformed by the thousands of works contained within. More than 9,000 images by 134 artists from 30 countries are on display at this year’s extravaganza.

Artistic director Massimiliano Gioni ― of the Nicola Trussardi Foundation in Milan, a nonprofit group that seeks to diffuse contemporary art within the public ― this year turned heads with a biennale concept that stunned. Gone are the installations of mostly brand-new artwork, still sleek with shine from a last gloss, and with the optimistic-cynical-etcetera vision of a future so wide open, the 2008 biennale operated under no unifying theme at all.

Under the theme ``10,000 Lives,’’ this year's event dives headfirst into an analysis of man, traversing the psychological and emotional grooves that constitute people’s relationship with ― what else ― images. The concept was taken from Korean author Ko Un’s 30-volume epic poem, ``Maninbo’’ (10,000 Lives), a collection of descriptions for every person Ko had met in his life that he wrote while imprisoned as a participant of the 1980 Gwangju democratization movement.

Since the beginning of the year and the theme’s unveiling, a key ― anxiety-inciting ― word for the biennale has been ``museum.’’ Rather than stand as an agglomeration of new art, Gioni worked to amass an impressive collection of images, homage and memories to people and the ones they loved, providing a telling glimpse of our need to create effigies in our image. Initially a hard theme to swallow, the director’s vision truly stuns in its strength and clarity, though that does not mean hours (upon hours) on end will not be needed to explore the riches of this show.

Around the exhibition

The opening hall focusing on representation of figures directly confronts the subject of the host city, as this year’s biennale falls on the 30th anniversary of the Gwangju massacre. Croatian artist Sanja Ivekovic quietly invades the senses with 10 performers, who hum the marching anthem of the movement from three decades ago. Surrounding the scene are images of the victims as gathered for family members, yet with one oddity and change: Ivekovic has altered the photos to close all of their eyes, in a haunting yet peaceful closure of the tragedy.

Swiftly following is a piece by Franco Vaccari that invites visitors to take a self-portrait in an old-fashioned photo booth and hang the strips of four onto the wall, in an ever-growing collection of visitors, capturing the fleeting moment.

Gallery 2 explores the world of imagery through two contrary forces, optical illusions and scientific approach. Work by Thomas Bayrle, an influential German pop artist, provides intricate trickery by depicting figures in bold, illusory patterns.

Gallery 3 takes on the world of heroes and martyrs, and hosts the notable ``Rent Collection Courtyard,’’ or more than 100 life-sized farmers caught as victims of exploitation by wealthy landowner Liu Wen-tsai. The figures look entirely capable of movement, as if simply waiting for visitors to turn their back to resume their pleading.

Gallery 4 is filled with a range of religious icons, fetishes ― Korean Ham Yang-ah’s video features a group sensually caressing a bust made of chocolate ― while an innovative performance piece Tino Sehgal features performance artists writhing on the floor in steady, smooth and robotic action (coming from rooms filled with the robotic and false bodies, the effect is surprisingly convincing).

The final gallery focuses on idiosyncratic perspectives of TV and film, and the exhibition, which continues to the Gwangju Museum of Art and Gwangju Folk Museum, tackles more themes such as self-portraiture through Roni Horn’s photographic takes on her own androgyny.

But there are multitudes more to see beyond these few names, including the likes of Evan Walker, personal collections by Andy Warhol, the unexpected artist James Castle and more. By the end of the biennale, visitors are left with a feeling of strangely satisfying exhaustion, as walking along the corridors of 110 years of art (the earliest photograph dates to 1901) is an experience more emotionally trying than just historically ambitious.

``Images are the children of nostalgia,’’ Gioni told reporters, Thursday at the biennale. ``We make them because we miss somebody. So yes, the show is elegiac, it’s an exhibition about losing somebody and the struggle of not wanting to let go and wanting to fight time…The tonality is maybe quite somber, but I think even in the quantity there’s a sense of effervescence.’’

The final result of the show ― which acts simultaneously as an exposition of human nature and a thesis, complete with evidence and proofs ― is thoughtful introspection that points toward the paradoxical desires and weaknesses of man. As ephemeral life can be and as great the fear of mortality, it is exactly those traits that drives individuals to create images, a sense of compassion serving as the savior from death through the simple ability to remember each other.

So yes, perhaps this exhibition will take all day, or several... but there are 10,000 lives in there.

The 2010 Gwangju Biennale runs through Nov. 7. Single-day adult tickets are 14,000 won, 3,000 won for children. For more information on directions and the show, visit www.gb.or.kr.
Emailinesmin@koreatimes.co.kr Article ListMore articles by this reporter
 
miguel
Top 10 Stories
130 people purchased 8,000 homes: data 30 people purchased 8,000 homes: data
2National Assembly passes motion to arrest DPK chiefNational Assembly passes motion to arrest DPK chief
3Gender equality minister nominee in hot seat over remarks on abortion Gender equality minister nominee in hot seat over remarks on abortion
4Seoul invites ambassadors to introduce new halal foods in Korea Seoul invites ambassadors to introduce new halal foods in Korea
5S. Korea condemns Russia, seeks to mend ties with China S. Korea condemns Russia, seeks to mend ties with China
6Honey-dipped cookie to represent 'K-desserts' at global food expo in Germany Honey-dipped cookie to represent 'K-desserts' at global food expo in Germany
7Kim Jong-un's rejection of Russia's food assistance irritates North Korean defectors Kim Jong-un's rejection of Russia's food assistance irritates North Korean defectors
8COVID-19 deaths hit record high in Korea for 2022 COVID-19 deaths hit record high in Korea for 2022
9KG Mobility seeks breakthrough in Europe KG Mobility seeks breakthrough in Europe
10Shilla hotel in Da Nang recognized at World Travel Awards Shilla hotel in Da Nang recognized at World Travel Awards
Top 5 Entertainment News
1BTS defies K-pop's 'seven-year curse' BTS defies K-pop's 'seven-year curse'
2Aespa's VR concert to hit theaters Oct. 25 Aespa's VR concert to hit theaters Oct. 25
3Gang Dong-won becomes exorcist con artist in 'Dr. Cheon and Lost Talisman' Gang Dong-won becomes exorcist con artist in 'Dr. Cheon and Lost Talisman'
4[INTERVIEW] Virtual K-pop group MAVE: is more than just pretty pixels INTERVIEWVirtual K-pop group MAVE: is more than just pretty pixels
5Hebrew University students travel to Korea to explore musical landscape Hebrew University students travel to Korea to explore musical landscape
DARKROOM
  • Turkey-Syria earthquake

    Turkey-Syria earthquake

  • Nepal plane crash

    Nepal plane crash

  • Brazil capital uprising

    Brazil capital uprising

  • Happy New Year 2023

    Happy New Year 2023

  • World Cup 2022 Final - Argentina vs France

    World Cup 2022 Final - Argentina vs France

CEO & Publisher : Oh Young-jin
Digital News Email : webmaster@koreatimes.co.kr
Tel : 02-724-2114
Online newspaper registration No : 서울,아52844
Date of registration : 2020.02.05
Masthead : The Korea Times
Copyright © koreatimes.co.kr. All rights reserved.
  • About Us
  • Introduction
  • History
  • Contact Us
  • Products & Services
  • Subscribe
  • E-paper
  • RSS Service
  • Content Sales
  • Site Map
  • Policy
  • Code of Ethics
  • Ombudsman
  • Privacy Statement
  • Terms of Service
  • Copyright Policy
  • Family Site
  • Hankook Ilbo
  • Dongwha Group