16th Gwangju Biennale to Open This Weekend with Theme of Transformation

SEOUL, Sept. 4 (Yonhap) -- The 16th Gwangju Biennale will launch this weekend in the southwestern city of Gwangju, with 43 teams from South Korea and abroad presenting works themed on transformation as a continuous process.

This year's event will begin with an opening ceremony Friday evening and officially kick off its 72-day run from Saturday through Nov. 5, according to the Gwangju Biennale Foundation.

Inspired by Rainer Maria Rilke's 1908 poem "Archaic Torso of Apollo," that concludes with the final line "You must change your life," the exhibition brings together works that explore how new capacities and forms of life emerge through change and artistic practice.

At a press conference held in March, artistic director Ho Tzu Nyen remarked how "the Biennale explores change as an artistic method, through which art thinkers, art dreamers and art lovers alike experiment with new forms of life, creativity, power and relationship."

To allow viewers to fully immerse themselves in the featured works, this year's Biennale scaled down the numbers of works on display but gathered them into one venue rather than spreading them across the city.

Featured artists include Mona Benyamin, Angela Goh, Daisuke Kosugi, Kim Sun-ik and James T. Hong.

Among notable participants is Volcanoes of Jeju, or Jeju Stone Park, which showcases the volcanic stones from the southern resort island of Jeju, engraved with the explosive eruption of volcanoes and the thousands of years that follow.

Meanwhile, the Biennale's Pavilion Project, which was introduced in 2018 to foster artistic exchange among artists and institutions, was set to feature 16 countries and 11 institutions.

But the plan has faltered amid a controversy over the use of the name Taiwan Pavilion, which prompted participating Chinese artists to hold a press conference saying they will withdraw from the exhibition in protest.