2024 제15회 광주비엔날레: 판소리, 모두의 울림 | Gwangju
Exhibitions
The 15th Gwangju Biennale celebrates its 30th anniversary and brings together 72 artists from 30 countries; "PANSORI: Soundscapes of the 21st Century" seeks to depict the complexity of the contemporary world. Conflicting borders, anti-immigrant walls, confinement, social distancing, quarantine policies... These seemingly different themes have one thing in common: space and its political organization. The main impact of climate change is the emergence of a new topology, a new world map in which CO2 and urban life, desertification and migration, deforestation and social struggles, the destruction of animal ecosystems and plant invasions, all become brutally interconnected. "PANSORI: Soundscapes of the 21st Century" is an operatic exhibition about the spaces we inhabit, from our homes to the human occupation of the planet. Since landscapes are also soundscapes, the exhibition is constructed as a narrative that connects musical and visual forms. Originating in the 17th century, PANSORI is a musical genre rooted in the Korean land that symbolizes the relationship between sound and space. In Korean, PANSORI literally means "noise from public places" and can also be translated as subordinate sounds. The 15th Gwangju Biennale aims to recapture the original spirit of Pansori, showcasing artists who explore contemporary space through dialogue with the biological forms that surround them. Art is also a specific place that makes us rethink the space shared between humans, machines, animals, souls and organic life - our relational space. Space is also the link that connects all liberation struggles, from feminism to decolonization or LGBT+ rights; the division of space is always geopolitical. Many artists in this exhibition address these spatial issues by representing contemporary landscapes and urban conditions filled with human presence or the impact of industrialization on natural ecosystems. Others open up space itself by dialoguing with machines, animals, bacteria and other life forms, or investigating the molecular composition of the world. Still others work on a cosmic scale, inventing a kind of contemporary shamanism. From extreme density to desert expanses, PANSORI: Soundscapes of the 21st Century is presented as an opera you can walk into.