Gwangju Biennale

Asia's oldest and most prestigious contemporary art biennale, founded to commemorate democratic movements and cultural resistance.

Inaugurated in 1995 in the city that was the site of the 1980 May 18 Democratic Uprising, the Gwangju Biennale was conceived as Asia's first international contemporary art biennale. The choice of Gwangju over Seoul was a political statement: democratisation through decentralisation, and healing through international dialogue. Three decades on, it has hosted Harald Szeemann, Okwui Enwezor, Massimiliano Gioni, Jessica Morgan, Sook-Kyung Lee and Nicolas Bourriaud — each restating the biennale's foundational link between art and democratic memory.