Sep 19 2014

Field Trip: Gwangju

by Elaine W. Ng

“Burning Down the House,” the title of the 2014 Gwangju Biennale—now in its tenth edition—may sound familiar to fans of the 1980s American art-rock band The Talking Heads. Not to be confused as an exhibition of artists from that generation, Gwangju Biennale artistic director Jessica Morgan uses the pop song’s catchy title as a way to explore the “potential of art as movement by exploring the efforts made by contemporary artists to address personal and public issues through individual and collective engagement, as well as demonstrating how challenging these efforts and their impacts have become.” Here, together with associate curators Enna Bae, Fatos Ustek and Emiliano Valdes, Morgan assembled a bold, confrontational exhibition, comprised of works by 105 artists and artist groups from over 38 countries, mainly taking place in the 8,100-square-meter, purpose-built Biennale Hall. Here’s a look at some of the highlights from this year’s Gwangju Biennale.

The tragic events of the May 18 Democratic Uprisings in Gwangju in 1980 has lingered in the background of almost every chapter of the Gwangju Biennale since it was first launched in 1995, and this year is no exception. The show starts off with MINOUK LIM’s new work, Navigation ID (2014), comprised of two shipping containers that were delivered to the Biennale Square, outside the exhibition hall, on preview day (September 3). Inside each of the containers are the skeletal remains of civilian victims from little known massacres during the Korean War (1950–53).

Following the arrival of the containers on preview day was a large bus that brought the families of these victims to the performance, escorted by an ambulance with its siren on and a helicopter that flew overhead. Together with the siren blasting, the thumping of the helicopter blades and the rainy weather, the mood was intense as the “Mothers of May”—the mothers of victims who died in the May 18 Democratic Uprisings—ushered the family members towards the containers as an attempt towards recognition and a proper burial ceremony that these Korean War victims, and many others, have yet to be given.

In Gallery 1 of the Biennale Hall, the main venue of the 2014 Gwangju Biennale, one encounters Burning Window, 1977, a quietly eerie installation by JACK GOLDSTEIN.

LEE BUL had a strong presentation of early work that included Abortion, a reprisal of a 1989 performance, and oversized costumes with monstrous malformations. Lee also received the Gwangju Biennale Foundation’s 2014 Noon Award, in recognition of her work which shares the experimental and creative nature of the biennale’s 2014 event. (LEE BUL, Untitled (Cravings Red), 1989/2011, fabric, cotton filling, wooden frame, stainless-steel karabiner, stainless-steel chain, acrylic paint, 180 × 158 × 130 cm.)

EDWARD KIENHOLZ and NANCY REDDIN KIENHOLZ, The Ozymandias Parade, 1985, mixed media.

HUMA MULJI, Lost and Found, 2012, fiberglass, buffalo hide and yarn.

Gallery 2 of the Biennale Hall, which one enters by going through PIOTR UKLANSKI’s 2012 installation Untitled (Open Wide), made of jute, hemp and cotton.

SEULGI LEE, Clamour, 2011–14, papier-mâché, 15 masks.

YOUNG IN HONG, Silent Drum, 2014, embroidered image on cotton.

TANG DIXIN, A Prisoner, 2009, and Announcer, 2013, both oil on canvas.

TETSUYA ISHIDA, Waiting for a Chance, 1999, acrylic on paper panel.

XOOANG CHOI, Sheddings, 2014, mixed media.

NEUNGKYUNG SUNG, No Relationship to a Particular Person, 1977, a set of 110 photographs.

GENG JIANYI, Useless, 2004, mixed media.

RENATE BERTLMANN, Washing Day, 1976–77, Latex.

SUKNAM YUN, Choi Seung Hee, 1996, mixed media.

NEUNGKYUNG SUNG, Location, 1976, set of nine photographs.

ABBAS AKHAVAN, Study for a Hanging Garden, 2013–14, cast bronze on cotton sheets.

LUBAINA HIMID, Drowned Orchard / Secret Boatyard, 2014, acrylic on wood.

SHEELA GOWDA, (Back) Protest, My Son, 2011, print on paper, watercolor, horn and fur, and (Front) Margins, 2011, wood, oil and enamel paint.

JAI-HYOUNG HWANG, A Death Certificate, 1985, acrylic on cloth.

SHOOSHIE SULAIMAN, Let’s Learn Propaganda: SINGA PURA: Registered 2, 2011–12, ballpoint pen on paper.

BANU CENNETOĞLU, Library of Spirits, 2013–14, an open bar consisting of 115 homemade spirits.

DUNG-JI, Hurrying Off to Work, from the “Mother as a Laborer” series, 1989, acrylic on cloth.

Gallery 3 of the Biennale Hall housed CECILIA BENGOLEA and FRANCOIS CHAIGNAUD’s performance Sylphides, which took place next to DAN FLAVIN’s 1966 fluorescent-light installation Monument 4 for Those Who Have Been Killed in Ambush (To P.K. Who Reminded Me About Death).

PREM SAHIB’s sculptures Exit, 2014, and Hard At It, 2014, exhibited inside URS FISCHER’s 38 E. 1st St., 2014, a one-to-one-scale photorealist wallpaper installation of the latter artist’s apartment in New York City’s East Village neighborhood. (PREM SAHIB, Exit, 2014, resin on anodized aluminum, 188 × 144 cm; Hard At It, 2014, ceramic tiles, plywood, neon glass tubing, steel, crash mat, polish steel, paint, dimensions variable.)

HEMAN CHONG’s durational performance works Simultaneous (Gwangju), 2014, Open Book Drawings (After Duchamp), 2014, exhibited inside URS FISCHER’s 38 E. 1st St., 2014, a one-to-one-scale photorealist wallpaper installation of the latter artist’s house in New York City’s East Village neighborhood.

HEMAN CHONG’s 2011 acrylic painting A History of Amnesia / Alfian Sa’at (2)exhibited inside URS FISCHER’s 38 E. 1st St., 2014, a one-to-one-scale photorealist wallpaper installation of the latter artist’s house in New York City’s East Village neighborhood.

TOMOKO YONEDA’s 2009 photographic series “KIMUSA”—documenting a former defense security command building in Seoul which was originally built by the Japanese government—was placed against a one-to-one scale photorealist wallpaper installation of the latter artist’s house in New York City’s East Village neighborhood.

RENATA LUCAS, Until it Becomes an Inconvenient Stranger, 2014, window installation.

Entering Gallery 4 of the Biennale Hall, visitors encountered ALLORA & CALZADILLA’s performance Temperament and the Wolf, 2014, consisting of two lines of 30 people, including musicians, masseurs, physical therapists, martial artists, calligraphers, farmers, mechanics, hair dressers, chefs, doctors, and many others from all walks of Korean life. They greeted each exhibition visitor by extending their hand as a gesture of welcome.

BASEL ABBAS and RUANNE ABOU-RAHME, The Incidental Insurgents: The Part about the Bandits, 2013, video.

LIONEL WENDT, UNTITLED, c. 1936, black-and-white photographs.

MRINALINI MUKHERJEE, Arboreal Enactment, 1991–92, hemp and jute on iron stand.

New York-based Japanese artist EI ARAKAWA and Seoul Marginal Theatre Festival artistic director INZA LIM collaborate to create work exploring the history of theatre in 1980s Gwangju, a period when cultural activities by artistic groups such as Gwangdae were suppressed, yet managed to play an important role in the democracy movement. (EI ARAKAWA and INZA LIM, The Unheroed Theatre (Character Studies with Gwangdae, Shinmyoung, Tobaki, the Fictitious Aseupalteau), 2014, mixed media.)

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