Gwangju Biennale 2023 Reveals First Artist List

On September 21, the Gwangju Biennale announced the first batch of participating artists for its 14th edition, slated to run from April 7 to July 9, 2023. The theme of the Biennale, “soft and weak like water,” derives from a chapter in Dao De Jing, the classical Chinese Taoist text, which discusses the transformative and restorative power of water.

Led by artistic director Sook-Kyung Lee, the Biennale will spotlight about 80 artists from around the world with more than 40 new works and projects. Alongside artists who reinterpret Gwangju’s history and traditions in a new light, participants also include artists who deliver their personal experience through their works and Korean artists from different generations.

For the 2023 edition, Brussels-based architect Sabine Theunissen will redesign the five galleries of the main venue, Gwangju Biennale Exhibition Hall, with execution overseen by Seoul-based architect Jeeyeon Ha. The Biennale will be divided into four sections: “Luminous Halo,” celebrating Gwangju’s spirit; “Ancestral Voices,” which features transnational artistic approaches that incorporate or critically reflect on traditions; “Transient Sovereignty,” examining the trajectory of post-colonial or de-colonial artistic thinking; and “Planetary Times,” on the possibility of a “planetary vision” when considering sustainability. 

The list of participating artists is as follows: 

Larry Achiampong 
Abbas Akhavan 
Farah Al Qasimi 
Tarek Atoui 
Bakhyt Bubikanova 
María Magdalena Campos-Pons 
Chang Jia 
Latifa Echakhch 
James T. Hong 
Sky Hopinka 
Huong Dodinh 
Tess Jaray 
Kang Yeon-gyun 
Naiza Khan 
Yuki Kihara 
Christine Sun Kim 
Kira Kim 
Kim Kulim 
Minjung Kim 
Soungui Kim 
Emily Kame Kngwarreye 
Meiro Koizumi 
Abdoulaye Konaté 
Chila Kumari Singh Burman 
Lee Kun-Yong 
Lee Seung-taek 
Kim Lim 
Candice Lin 
Tanya Lukin Linklater 
Liu Jianhua 
Guadalupe Maravilla 
Noé Martínez 
Mata Aho Collective 
Mayunkiki 
Alan Michelson 
Małgorzata Mirga-Tas 
Naeem Mohaiemen 
Yuko Mohri 
Betty Muffler 
Aliza Nisenbaum 
Lucia Nogueira 
Oh Suk Kuhn 
Oh Yoon 
Oum Jeong Soon 
Pangrok Sulap 
Sopheap Pich 
Taiki Sakpisit 
Thasnai Sethaseree 
Dayanita Singh 
Buhlebezwe Siwani 
Vivian Suter 
Yu Jiwon 
Yuma Taru 
Charwei Tsai 
Judy Watson 
Alberta Whittle 
Robert Zhao Renhui 
David Zink Yi 

Lily Wong is ArtAsiaPacific’s editorial intern.

• Gwangju Biennale
• South Korea