16th Gwangju Biennale

Entitled You Must Change Your Life, the biennale brings together artists chosen through an open call launched in May last year, reflecting an international selection process. Among the participating artists and groups are İnci Eviner, Sohrab Hura, Mona Benyamin, Saodat Ismailova, Rafik Greiss and multidisciplinary collective CAMP, whose practices span diverse geographies and experimental works that engage with social and political conditions.

The 16th edition is led by Singapore-based artist and filmmaker Ho Tzu Nyen along with curators Che Kyongfa, Park Gahee and Brian Kuan Wood, who collectively shape the conceptual and curatorial direction of the biennale. The title draws from Austrian poet Rainer Maria Rilke’s 1908 sonnet Archaic Torso of Apollo, which ends with the line “You must change your life”. In the poem, an encounter with an ancient sculpture produced a powerful emotional response, suggesting that art can trigger shifts in perception and action. The biennale adopts this idea as a guiding propositon, exploring how artistic practices can generate forms of change that are both personal and collective.