{"id":85137,"date":"2026-09-15T16:18:08","date_gmt":"2026-09-15T08:18:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=85137"},"modified":"2026-09-15T16:18:08","modified_gmt":"2026-09-15T08:18:08","slug":"16th-gwangju-biennale-rises-above-controversies-as-one-of-art-worlds-best-in-recent-years","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/?p=85137","title":{"rendered":"16th Gwangju Biennale rises above controversies as one of art world\u2019s best in recent years"},"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\/09\/14\/1c9f57d4-a91c-4c65-a8c5-c884d8497ed8_75938407.jpg?itok=qF1jp8JY&amp;v=1789363192\" \/><\/p>\n<div id=\"\">\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Despite a title that sounds like a barked order, \u201cYou Must Change Your Life\u201d may be one of the most sensitive, nuanced and fulfilling biennale shows in recent memory.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">And no, this is not just the relief of a smaller, less foot-blistering marathon of a show than usual, though that too is very much part of the curatorial philosophy.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The strong selection of artworks in the main exhibition of the 16th Gwangju Biennale is blessedly free of the moralising, clich\u00e9d tone that taints so many recent biennials and delivers on the curatorial promise of empowering change by shifting our perspectives.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">The title is taken from Rainer Maria Rilke\u2019s 1908 poem <em data-qa=\"ContentSchemaRender-defaultRenderMapFunctions-Component\" class=\"css-1mniedq ex3nmsa15\">Archaic Torso of Apollo<\/em>. Artistic director Ho Tzu Nyen \u2013 a Singaporean visual artist, filmmaker and curator \u2013 was reading the poem on a train while feeling creatively depleted after a major solo exhibition in 2024. In those words, he found rejuvenation.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<center><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/lifestyle\/arts\/article\/3367186\/16th-gwangju-biennale-rises-above-controversies-one-art-worlds-best-recent-years?utm_source=rss_feed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article At Source <\/a><br \/>\n<center\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Despite a title that sounds like a barked order, \u201cYou Must Change Your Life\u201d may be one of the most sensitive, nuanced and fulfilling biennale&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":85138,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[30042,1501,7074,7440,20584,7509,3117,59],"class_list":["post-85137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bored-interesting","tag-16th","tag-art","tag-biennale","tag-controversies","tag-gwangju","tag-rises","tag-worlds","tag-years","wpcat-33-id"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85137","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=85137"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85137\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/85138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=85137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=85137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sgbuzz.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=85137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}