15th Gwangju Biennale Announces Full Artist List

Organizers of the Gwangju Biennale have revealed the seventy-three artists, representing thirty countries, who will be participating in the fifteenth edition of the event. Titled “Pansori: A Soundscape of the 21st Century,” the 2024 iteration of the Biennale is curated by French scholar, curator, and critic Nicolas Bourriaud and will run from September 7 through December 1. The forthcoming edition is coincident with the Biennale’s thirtieth anniversary.

The wordpansoriliterally means “the sound of the public place,” or, colloquially, “the voice of the common people.” The genre, which features musical storytelling by a vocalist accompanied by a drummer, emerged in southwest Korea during the seventeenth century as an accompaniment to shamanic rituals. According to apress release, Bourriaud has conceived this iteration of the Biennale as “an operatic exhibition about the space we live in, from housing to human settlement on the planet.” To that end, the event will investigate the effects of climate change and the recent pandemic on the notion of space, and will explore the interconnection between humans, animals, nature, and technology within the context of the Anthropocene.

The Biennale will take place at the Gwangju Biennale Exhibition Hall. An opera, featuring a song written in collaboration between Han Kang and the Seoul band WeMu, will mark its opening. A symposium bringing together artists and philosophers is also planned. As earlier noted, art projects are set to appear in diverse locations throughout the city, ranging from cafés to public parks. As well, sound-based artworks will be scattered throughout Gwangju; these will act as madangs, or “individual songs,” of pansori.

A full list of participating artists is below.

Saâdane AfifHaseeb AhmedDeniz Aktaş Noel W. AndersonAndrius ArutiunianKevin BeasleyWendimagegn BeleteBianca BondiDora BudorPeter BuggenhoutAngela BullochAlex CervenyCheng XinhaoChoi HaneylGaëlle ChoisneAnna ConwayBinta DiawJohn DowellHayden DunhamLiam GillickLoris GréaudMatthias GroebelMatthew Angelo HarrisonMarguerite HumeauAgata IngardenHye Joo JunJun Hyoung SanKim Hyeong SukKim JayiYoungEun KimDominique KnowlesAgnieszka KurantHyewon KwonNetta LauferBrianna LeatherburyYein LeeOswaldo MaciáMira MannCinthia MarcelleVladislav MarkovBeaux MendesMyriam MihindouNa MiraSaadia MirzaDavid NoonanKatja NovitskovaJosèfa NtjamEmeka OgbohFrida OrupaboLydia OurahmaneMimi ParkPhilippe ParrenoAmol K. PatilHarrison PearceLucy RavenTabita RezaireMarina RheingantzMarina RosenfeldMax Hooper SchneiderFranck ScurtiSoomin ShonJura ShustMarianna SimnettSofya SkidanAnastasia SosunovaJakob Kudsk SteensenSung TieuJulian Abraham “Togar”Unmake LabYuyan WangAmbera WellmannKandis WilliamsPhillip Zach