Artists Rally Behind Taiwan After Gwangju Biennale Strips Pavilion Name
Thirty-eight artists and curators have signed an open letter demanding that the Gwangju Biennale Foundation restore the name "Taiwan Pavilion" to the Taiwanese exhibition at its 16th edition, which opens with a preview on 4 September in Gwangju, South Korea. The letter, published on 25 August, escalates a dispute that began two weeks earlier and has drawn in Taiwan's government Artnet.
The foundation renamed the pavilion "NTMoFA" — an acronym for the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, which commissioned the exhibition. Taiwanese participants say they objected repeatedly before the change was imposed on 15 August. They have also been locked out of their venue, the Asia Culture Center, since 18 August, leaving them more than a week behind on installation. Taiwan's culture ministry said the foundation suggested relocating the exhibition to a smaller storage space Artnet.
The biennale's own open call invited both "countries and institutions" to participate and described exhibitors as coming from "diverse national backgrounds" Ocula. On 19 August, the foundation defended the rename as an "administrative difference concerning participant classification and naming conventions," claiming the NTMoFA registered as an institution rather than a national pavilion. It denied accusations of censorship, according to the Korea Herald Korea Herald.
The signatories reject that framing. Their letter states: "Art institutions should not become instruments for suppressing how people identify themselves." The 38 signatories include 16 artists from the biennale's main exhibition and representatives from 12 of the event's pavilion projects — among them Indonesia, Brazil, France, Poland, Malta and the Japanese districts of Asakusa and Koganecho Artnet.
Taiwan's culture ministry weighed in on 25 August, saying it "sternly protested" the foundation's refusal to admit Taiwanese personnel and demanding an official response to its request to reinstate the name by Wednesday. Taiwan's government and participating artists have accused the biennale of political censorship Euronews.
In their own open letter on 15 August, the Taiwanese exhibitors described censorship of art as a global issue and condemned "major powers" that "are increasingly using diplomatic pressure and economic resources to interfere beyond their borders" Artnet. The South China Morning Post and e-flux both reported the dispute as accusations of political censorship SCMP; e-flux.
The Gwangju Biennale, founded in 1995, is one of Asia's largest recurring contemporary art exhibitions. A pavilion at a biennale is a designated exhibition space, usually associated with a country or institution — and what it is called carries weight, because the name determines how the work is seen and who claims it.
With the preview ten days away and the installation clock ticking, the foundation has yet to respond to Taiwan's Wednesday deadline.
