Exploring ‘change’ by borrowing lines from Rilke’s poetry… 43 teams of domestic and foreign artists participated

Exploring ‘change’ by borrowing lines from Rilke’s poetry… 43 teams of domestic and foreign artists participated

Chinese pavilion artists boycott... The aftermath of the conflict over the name of the ‘Taiwan Pavilion’ continues

(Jeonnam Gwangju = Yonhap News) Reporter Jang A-reum = The 16th Gwangju Biennale will hold its opening ceremony on the 4th and begin its 72-day journey from the 5th to November 15th.

The opening ceremony, held at the Gwangju Biennale exhibition hall and outdoor stage, will feature electronic music performances by musicians Kim Seon-ik and Ryu Han-gil.

'Called' (2026), a GB commission (requested work) by Kwon Byeong-jun and Park Chan-kyung, produced and supported by the Gwangju Biennale, will also be revealed.

There will also be an outdoor performance by Jellyfish, a duo combining traditional Korean music and electronic music, and a live techno performance by electronic musician Rrose.

The theme of this exhibition is 'You must change your life', a poem by Rainer Maria Rilke, and 43 teams of domestic and foreign artists examine the possibility of change, from the microscopic world of atoms and molecules to individual life, society, history, and the universe.

Artistic director Ho Chu-nien and curators Park Ga-hee, Brian Quan Wood, and Choi Kyung-hwa co-curate the exhibition, and to increase concentration, the main exhibition is presented only at the Gwangju Biennale exhibition hall.

Meanwhile, the pavilion (special pavilion) project, which has grown into a major axis of the Gwangju Biennale along with the main exhibition, is expected to inevitably be disrupted as Chinese artists decide to withdraw from the exhibition.

The pavilion served as a venue for exchange between domestic and foreign art and cultural institutions during the exhibition, and this year, 16 national pavilions and 11 institutions were scheduled to participate.

However, controversy grew when the Gwangju Biennale Foundation changed the name of the exhibition at the National Taiwan Museum of Art from Taiwan Pavilion to NTMoFA, the abbreviated name of the museum, and when it was approved again as the Taiwan Pavilion, China protested.