{"id":77741,"date":"2026-08-19T19:26:50","date_gmt":"2026-08-19T11:26:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=77741"},"modified":"2026-08-19T19:26:50","modified_gmt":"2026-08-19T11:26:50","slug":"taiwan-vs-south-korean-art-biennale-inside-the-fierce-political-row-over-pavilion-name","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=77741","title":{"rendered":"Taiwan vs South Korean art biennale: inside the fierce political row over pavilion name"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/1280x720\/public\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/08\/19\/a1a69ac4-40cd-44e5-8c66-014fba1df0a1_8506229a.jpg?itok=qfft9wip&amp;v=1787130063\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">A fierce row has erupted between Taiwan and South Korea\u2019s Gwangju Biennale, Asia\u2019s oldest contemporary art biennial, after the self-ruled island complained that its art showcase at this year\u2019s event, which opens on September 5, is not being promoted as the \u201cTaiwan Pavilion\u201d.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Instead, it is being promoted as the \u201cNTMoFA Pavilion\u201d \u2013 based on the participation of the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts \u2013 sparking accusations of political censorship.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The clash underscores the political nature of international art exhibitions and raises critical questions about how organisers can navigate realpolitik amid rising geopolitical tension.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">On August 19, the Gwangju Biennale Foundation issued a statement denying any political censorship. It characterised the dispute as an \u201cadministrative difference concerning participant classification and naming conventions\u201d that \u201cdoes not concern the content of an exhibition or freedom of expression\u201d.<\/p>\n<div datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1xdhyk6 ec74h0k0\">In an email to the South China Morning Post, it further stated that the <span data-qa=\"Component-Text\" class=\"css-0 ef9u0v00\">Gwangju Biennale<\/span> had initially been preparing a pavilion with the Taiwan Contemporary Culture Lab (C-LAB), but the latter withdrew for funding reasons. From December 2025, discussions were held with the NTMoFA for it to take part in place of C-LAB, it said.<\/div>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cAccordingly, NTMoFA\u2019s participation in the 16th Gwangju Biennale was planned from the outset as an institutional pavilion,\u201d it wrote.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/arts\/article\/3364556\/taiwan-vs-south-korean-art-biennale-inside-fierce-political-row-over-pavilion-name?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A fierce row has erupted between Taiwan and South Korea\u2019s Gwangju Biennale, Asia\u2019s oldest contemporary art biennial, after the self-ruled island complained that its art&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":77742,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[1501,7074,19561,498,15886,4658,5554,5246,6322],"class_list":["post-77741","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-art","tag-biennale","tag-fierce","tag-korean","tag-pavilion","tag-political","tag-row","tag-south","tag-taiwan","wpcat-33-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77741","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=77741"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77741\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/77742"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=77741"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=77741"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=77741"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}