The Chinese ambassador to South Korea has ordered China’s artists to withdraw from the 16th Gwangju Biennale, which opens September 5, in protest of the Gwangju Biennial Foundation allowing Taiwanese exhibitors to participate under the name “Taiwan,” South Korean media reported today.
In a meeting with Gwangju Mayor Min Hyung-bae at Gwangju City Hall yesterday, Ambassador Dai Bing expressed his “regret and concern” over the decision to restore the name “Taiwan Pavilion” at the request of Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture, the Munhwa Broadcasting Corporation (MBC) reported.
Speaking on behalf of the Chinese Embassy, Dai then demanded Chinese curators and installation staff to halt their preparations and withdraw from the Hajeongung Art Museum in Gwangju, which was set to host their special exhibition.
MBC reports that Min told Dai during their meeting that “political considerations should not affect the field of art.”
The Gwangju Biennale Foundation has been embroiled in a diplomatic dispute with Taiwan for more than year over the renaming of a satellite exhibition from the “Taiwan Pavilion” to the “NTMoFA Pavilion,” referencing its commissioning institution, the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. The two parties disagreed over the circumstances surrounding the name change, with Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture ultimately accusing the GBF of “political censorship” in an August 15 statement.
GBF denied allegations that it had acted without Taiwan’s consent in an effort to appease Beijing, which does not recognize the sovereignty of the self-governed island. But the dispute quickly escalated into a reputational crisis for the biennale, with artists from Taiwan and China condemning the name change as a betrayal of its founding ideals.
The biennale was established in 1994 to commemorate the 1980 Gwangju Uprising, a deadly chapter in South Korea’s struggle against military rule, during which upwards of 2,300 South Korean civilians were estimated to have been killed.
On Tuesday, the GBF announced that Taiwan’s exhibition at its September edition can open as the “Taiwan Pavilion,” and be advertised as such in its promotional materials.
In a statement to the South Korean press, the Gwangju Biennale said, “There is not much time left until the opening on September 5, and we are closely monitoring the situation, hoping the exhibition will proceed smoothly.”
