The 12th Gwangju Biennale featured 165 artists from 43 different countries in a series of seven exhibitions and the GB Commission, exploring the political, cultural, physical, and emotional concepts of borders in the global community. For this edition of the Biennale, a collective of 11 curators from around the world devised a program of thematic exhibitions, in addition to a monumental new program, the GB Commission, and a series of Pavilion Projects that took place across the city of Gwangju. Multiple curators, from the UK to Los Angeles and Singapore to Seoul, brought their diverse perspectives and expertise to the Biennale and collaborated on projects inspired by the concept of Imagined Borders.
Based on their expertise in sociology, politics, migration, and the refugee experience, the curators confirmed a list of 163 participating artists within seven thematic exhibitions and the GB Commission, reflecting contemporary society and amplifying diverse voices in the cultural community. By focusing on Post-Internet art, The Ends: The Politics of Participation in the Post-Internet Age, co-curated by Rita Gonzalez and Christine Y. Kim, examined the politics of participation and power, the digital divide, and worlds with perpetually threatened or absent Internet access under contemporary post-Internet conditions. Along with numerous artists, theorists, writers, and activists, it reflected on Internet access, unauthorized use of information, hacking, surveillance, and Zach Blas’ “contra-Internet aesthetics.” It also explored virtual money and its ecological consequences, alternative digital platforms, and the potential extinction of the Internet, through a variety of artworks including sculptures, videos, installations, and performances.
The 20th-century Cold War narrative was echoed, amplifying political tensions between the United States, Russia, South Korea, and North Korea with so-called “cybersteroids,” which made Gwangju a particularly fitting place to take these discussions further in 2018.
Image: Shu Lea Cheang, UKI Virus Rising, 2018
Related:
The Ends: The Politics of Participation in the Post-Internet Age, 12th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea, 2018
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