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6/9/2012

The 9th Gwangju Biennale

Different Venues, Gwangju

Co-Artistic Directors: Nancy Adajania, Wassan Al-Khudhairi, Mami Kataoka, Sunjung Kim, Carol YinghuaLu and Alia Swastika.

While it operates simultaneously on many levels, one thing is quite clear: ROUNDTABLE, the 9th Gwangju Biennale, is not about unanimity. It is instead an open-ended series of collaborations that require active participation and individual responsibility, resulting in a multiplicity of voice, as well as opportunities for cross-contamination.

Beyond metaphor, ROUNDTABLE simultaneously describes the working relationship of the 2012 Gwangju Biennale’s six Co-Artistic Directors, the conversational interaction of its six sub-themes, and its non-linear structure.

Historically, the roundtable is associated with the political summit, where various agendas are brought together for group consideration. It could also evoke the traditional Korean image of the roundtable, the duriban, around which people eat communally. In this vein the six Co-Artistic Directors - Nancy Adajania, Wassan Al-Khudhairi, Mami Kataoka, Sunjung Kim, Carol Yinghua Lu, and Alia Swastika- chose to engage with the practice of the collective as a nonhierarchical organizational alternative.

The process echoes and intersects with various regional histories and movements, challenging the Co-Artistic Directors to consider diverse forms of community and various contexts of belonging. The result is not pre-determined by any group identity or shared quality, and instead reflects a shifting, organic relationship of ideas.

This approach is also expressed through the six sub-themes that form the core of the ROUNDTABLE. By design, the sub-themes circle around one another, overlapping, and at times taking oppositional views on the role of the individual or of the collective. Within the overarching framework of the ROUNDTABLE, they invite us to rethink history as a series of malleable junctures, to consider the tension between belonging and anonymity, and the affects that temporality, spatiality and mobility have on the collective.

The Co-Artistic Directors describe their process in this manner: “As individuals working together, we could not have a single perspective, and instead it became about finding a connecting point. Both curator and audience may not relate in the same way to all of the artists, however we can find a point of connection within the themes.”

The act of curation is thus a synthesis - a series of collisions that perhaps leads to transformation.

“ROUNDTABLE will feature over 92 artists, artist groups, and temporary collectives from 40 countries. Expanding beyond the 8,100 square meter Gwangju Biennale Hall to select locations across the city, the exhibition runs from September 7th to November 11th, 2012 and will present 43 new commissions and
15 residencies, including many process based installations and performance works.
Conceived of as an evolving project, ROUNDTABLE includes a series of Workstations and E-Journals in the build up to and during the main exhibition, aimed at engaging with a global audience.

Workstations
ROUNDTABLE extends itself into active discourse through a cycle of Workstations, or curated conversations featuring participants from various theatres of engagement, including: curatorial practice, art and architecture, cultural theory and the interstitial spaces between art and activism.

Workstation 1: “Self-organisation as Ethic” (Gwangju and Seoul: February 2012,) was curated by ROUNDTABLE Co-Artistic Director Nancy Adajania. It re-examined various forms of artistic and political resistance premised on self-organisation, collectivity, and contingency, against the backdrop of such recent upheavals as the Arab Spring and the Occupy Movements. The speakers at Workstation 1 were Charles Esche, Gerardo Mosquera, Maria Hlavajova, WHW (Natasa Iic), Markus Miessen, Dmitry Vilensky (Chto Delat?), Minouk Lim, Nikolaus Hirsch, Taek-Gwang Lee, Bassam El Baroni, Alia Swastika, Heejin Kim, and Nancy Adajania.

Workstation 2: “Roundtable: Where Do We Sit?” takes place during the public opening of the Gwangju Biennale on Friday 7 September 2012 from 10 am - 6 pm. This day-long program comprises a series of conversations, artist interventions, and performances. Curated by three of ROUNDTABLE’s Co-Artistic Directors, Wassan Al-Khudhairi, Carol Yinghua Lu, and Alia Swastika, the event features 14 of the biennale’s participating artists / collectives and invites audiences to engage directly with the exhibition.

PR & Business Department International PR and Media Manager
Jisu Kim +82-62-608-4223 jisu.kim@gwangjubiennale.org

Gwangju Biennale
111 Biennale-ro, yongbong-dong, Buk-gu, Gwangju , 500-845, Republic of Korea
Opening Hours:
Everyday 9:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m.

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