Guadalupe Maravilla
The 14th Gwangju Biennale proposes to imagine our shared planet as a site of resistance, coexistence, solidarity and care by thinking through the transformative and restorative potential of water as a metaphor, a force and a method. soft and weak like water celebrates an aqueous model of power that brings forth change, not with an immediate effect but with enduring and pervasive gentleness, flowing across structural divisions and differences. Embracing contradictions and paradoxes—as “there is nothing softer and weaker than water, and yet there is nothing better for attacking hard and strong things” (Dao De Jing, Chapter 78)—the Biennale’s theme highlights the capacity of art to permeate deep into the individual and the collective, which enables us to navigate through the complexities of the world with a sense of awareness and direction.
14th Gwangju Biennale: soft and weak like water, Gwangju Biennale Exhibition Hall, 2023, Installation View, Photo by studio SUJIKSUPYUNG
14th Gwangju Biennale: soft and weak like water, Gwangju Biennale Exhibition Hall, 2023, Installation View, Photo by studio SUJIKSUPYUNG
14th Gwangju Biennale: soft and weak like water, Gwangju Biennale Exhibition Hall, 2023, Installation View, Photo by studio SUJIKSUPYUNG
14th Gwangju Biennale: soft and weak like water, Gwangju Biennale Exhibition Hall, 2023, Installation View, Photo by studio SUJIKSUPYUNG
14th Gwangju Biennale: soft and weak like water, Gwangju Biennale Exhibition Hall, 2023, Installation View, Photo by studio SUJIKSUPYUNG
14th Gwangju Biennale: soft and weak like water, Gwangju Biennale Exhibition Hall, 2023, Installation View, Photo by studio SUJIKSUPYUNG
14th Gwangju Biennale: soft and weak like water, Gwangju Biennale Exhibition Hall, 2023, Installation View, Photo by studio SUJIKSUPYUNG
The 14th Gwangju Biennale (until 9 July) takes as its tagline ‘soft and weak like water’ – a phrase inspired by the classical Chinese treatise Tao Te Ching in which Laozi proposed the paradoxical power of the soft and subtle to overcome seemingly insurmountable challenges.
At the 14th Gwangju Biennale's press conference, a local journalist probed artistic director Sook-Kyung Lee on the difference between this edition's themes and the one before it.
As a recurring art event, the Gwangju Biennale carries a heavy burden: to deal with the legacy and trauma of the democratic uprising and the massacre that followed in the city in May 1980, a recent historical event that has not reached its closure.
With an installation on view at the 14th Gwangju Biennale and an exhibition at ICA Watershed opening in May 2023, the artist talks about creating space to heal through his art
Scheduled to run from 7 April to 9 July, the show’s organisers have revealed further exhibitions details as well as all the contributors.