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2018 Busan Biennale Artists, Theme And Title Announced
By Julee WJ Chung
*Last updated August 16, 2018.
The 2018 Busan Biennale, which will take place in the soon-to-be-opened Museum of Contemporary Art Busan (reference image pictured) and the former Bank of Korea building, has released its title, theme and intial roster of participating artists. Courtesy Busan Biennale.
On May 7, the executive director of the Busan Biennale Organizing Committee, Choi Tae Man, announced the title, theme and partial list of artists for the 2018 Busan Biennale, which will take place between September 8 and November 11.
Under the title “Divided We Stand,” the biennale will showcase the works of 65 international artists and collectives from 34 countries who are responding to today’s global political climate, shaped by the segregation of territories, transnational political interests, and the international exchange and obstruction of information. The focused selection of artists is intended to provide an alternative to the grandiose scale of blockbuster exhibitions that are proliferating worldwide, instead giving a comprehensive yet concise show that encapsulates and further sparks critical discussions around the biennale’s themes.
Helmed by the 2018 Busan Biennale’s joint artistic directors Cristina Ricupero and Jörg Heiser, who were appointed to their roles in early February this year, the announcement states that “the focus of the exhibition is not just on the documentary of fictional responses artists have made to [the issues addressed by the exhibition]. Crucially, it looks at how souls are inspired, or haunted, by these political divisions.”
Departing from its routine practice of using the Busan Museum of Art as its main venue, the 2018 edition will take place in two sites that will branch out into their own themes. The Museum of Contemporary Art Busan—the main location of this year’s biennale, a 29,900-square-meter site opening this June on Busan’s Eulsukdo Island—will reflect on the Cold War era and its aftermath, while the former Bank of Korea building will house works by artists who use science fiction to shed light on contemporary socio-political realities.
The participating artists are:
Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme
Bani Abidi
Chantal Akerman
Dora Longo Bahia
Maja Bajevic
Khaled Barakeh
Yael Bartana
Jean-Luc Blanc
Oscar Chan Yik Long
Onejoon Che
Mina Cheon
Chin Cheng Te
Sunah Choi
Phil Collins
Christoph Dettmeier
Mauricio Dias and Walter Riedweg
Smadar Dreyfus
Eva Grubinger
Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige
Ramin and Rokni Haerizadeh and Hesam Rahmanian
Flaka Haliti
Kiluanji Kia Henda
Andy Hope 1930
Hsu Chia-Wei
Young Zoo Im
Joo Hwang
Yunsun Jung
Nikita Kadan
Wanuri Kahiu
Amar Kanwar
Hayoun Kwon
Oliver Laric
Minwhee Lee and Yun Choi
Gabriel Lester
Minouk Lim
Laura Lima and Zé Carlos Garcia
Lin + Lam
Liu Ding
Marko Lulic
Fabian Marti
Augustin Maurs
Metahaven
Nástio Mosquito
Henrike Naumann
Marcel Odenbach
Melik Ohanian
Ferhat Ozgur
Kelvin Kyung Kun Park
Susan Philipsz
Adrian Piper
Min Jeong Seo
Bruno Serralongue
Tayfun Serttas
Hito Steyerl
Jan Svenungsson
Tamura Yuichiro
Javier Téllez
The Propeller Group
Suzanne Treister
Lars von Trier
Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas
Jane and Louise Wilson
Ming Wong
Ulrich Wüst
Zhang Peili
Julee WJ Chung is the assistant editor of ArtAsiaPacific.
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