KOREA

When Korea first ventured into the Venice Biennale in 1986 with the Korea Art Association promoting its participation, the East Asian nation was spared a small space within the Italian hall since they did not have an exhibition hall ready specifically for their use. Since then, the Korean pavilion was built in 1995 as the 25th independent national pavilion and the Arts Council of Korea has been curating Korea’s participation at the Venice Biennale. Korean pavilion at the Venice Biennale was the second Asian pavilion to be established after Japan.
The following is the list of previous commissioners and participating artists since 1995: 1995-Lee, Il (artists: Yoon Hyong Keun, Kwak Hoon, Kim In Kyum, Jheon Soocheon); 1997-Oh Kwang Soo (artists: Hyungwoo Lee, Ik-joong Kang); 1999-Misook Song (artists: Lee Bul, Noh Sang-Kyoon); 2001-Kyung-mee Park (artists: Michael Joo, Do-ho Suh); 2003-Kim Hong-Hee (artists: Bahc Yiso, Chung Seoyoung, Whang Inkie); 2005-Sun Jung Kim (artists: Beom Kim, Sora Kim, Gimhongsok, NAKION, Sungsik Moon, Kiwon Park, Park Sejin, Yiso Bahc, Young-Whan Bae, Nakhee Sung, Hein-kuhn Oh, Jewyo Rhii, Yeondoo Jung, Choi Jeong-Hwa, Ham Jin); 2007-Soyeon Ahn (artist: Hyungkoo Lee).
Awards given to Korean artists at the Venice Biennale include Jheon Soocheon’s Menzione d’Honore Award at the 46th exhibition in 1995, and Ik-joong Kang’s Special Merit Award at the 47th exhibition in 1997. With Lee Bul’s Special Citation Award at the 48th exhibition in 1999, Korean artists set record for winning Special Awards for three consecutive terms.
The Korean pavilion has a total of 240m2 in gross floor area in a single story building and does not have a large space that is solely dedicated to exhibiting the artworks. However, commissioner Sun Jung Kim curated “Secret Beyond the Door” for the 51st Venice Biennale in 2005, made an innovative attempt to invite as many as 15 artists to the exhibition. In 2007, Hyungkoo Lee, a young sculptor who had only two solo shows locally, was selected as the only representative of Korean pavilion. This year is the first time since 1995 when a Korean curator working overseas has been selected as the commissioner.

Artist Heague Yang, Series of Vulnerable Arrangements-Seven Basel Lights, 2007, site-specific installation, Courtesy Gallery Barbara Wien, Berlin, Collection Kunsthalle Hamburg.

Three Kinds, 2008, site-specific installation. Exhibition view of Life on Mars at the 55th Carnegie International, Pittsburgh, USA, 2008.

Yearning Melancholy Red, 2008, site-specific installation. Exhibition view of Asymmetric Equality, REDCAT, LA, USA, 2008. Courtesy Galerie Barbara Wien, Berlin, Germany, Photo by Scott Groller.

JAPAN

Japan has the longest history at the Venice Biennale compared to any other Asian nation. According to a historical record, Japan sent art works as early as the 2nd exhibition in 1897.
Japan’s first full-scale participation was during the 26th exhibition in 1952, after the Second World War, when it presented the works of 11 Japanese and Western style painters. In 1956, Japan’s Foreign Ministry planned to build a pavilion by the summer. The pavilion, designed by Takamasa Yoshisaka, was completed and is still used to this day. Japan was the first Asian country to open its own pavilion.
In the five decades since then, a total of 83 Japanese artists have participated including Miwa Yagnagi and gradually, Japanese curators became more interested in younger artists and wanted to show ‘up-to-date art.’ That might include new media artists like Yoichiro Kawaguchi(1995), the computer graphics artist, or Tatsuo Miyajima(1999), who showed Mega Death, which was featured on 2450 blue LED counters and patiently counted down from nine to zero.
In 2003, Yutaka Sone and Motohiko Odani created a space of deviance through their works, or in another words, through the creation of actual sites such as sculptures and video installations. In 2005, photographer Ishiuchi Miyako presented her series Mother’s, which consisted of close-up photographs of her own mother and some of her mother’s personal possessions that were photographed after her mother died. At the 52nd exhibition in 2007, Masao Okabe’s work featured at the pavilion was centered on 1,400 rubbings made from his renowned frottage technique. These rubbings were taken from the platform of the former Ujina train station near the port of Hiroshima and from a 16-meter row of stones from the platform that were exposed to the atomic bomb. This year, Yoko Ono, who developed artistic strategies that have left a lasting mark both in her native Japan and in the West, will be awarded the Golden Lions for Lifetime Achievement award.

Artist Miwa Yanagi
Miwa, 2000, chromgenic print on plexiglass mounted on aluminum, 160x160cm.

Mineko, 2003, medium Laserjet, plexiglass, text panel, 87.5x120cm. from the series my grandmother. Courtesy of the artist and Yoshiko Isshiki Office.
White Casket, 1998, C-print mounted on plexiglass, polyptych with 4 panels, 30x40cm each Deutsche Bank collection. Courtesy of the artist.

CHINA

Harold Szeemann’s 1999 48th Venice Biennale exhibition, “dAPERTutto Over All,” included Chinese artists such as Ai Weiwei, Zhou Tiehai, Zhuang Hui, Wang Xingwei, Yang Shaobin, Fang Lijun, Qiu Shihua, Xie Nanxing, Zhang Peili, Yue Minjun, Zhao Bandi, Wang Jin, Zhang Huan, Liang Shaoji, Ma Liuming, Lu Hao, Chen Zhen, Cai Guoqiang and Wang Du. Since the national Chinese pavilion was not yet built at the time, works by these nineteen Chinese artists chosen for the “d APERTutto” section were displayed both in the Giardini, specifically in the Italian pavilion, and in the Arsenale. The Italian pavilion hosted no less than ten Chinese artists, and in the newly restored spaces of the Arsenale, dazzling installations by Cai Guo-Qiang were housed and shown. Szeemann, whose inclusion of Chinese artists at the Venice Biennale in 1999 and 2001, made a major contribution towards popularizing the Chinese avant-garde in the West.
In 2005, for the 51th Biennale, the first official Chinese pavilion was built by the Chinese Ministry of Culture, but it was temporary. Commissioners for the 2005 Chinese pavilion included Xu Jiang, the President of the China Academy of Art, Fan Di’an, the Vice President of the Central Academy of Art, Artist Cai Guo-Qiang, Wang Mingxian, the Vice Director of the Architecture Institute of China, and Pi Li, who was from the Central Academy of Art. Artists Yung Ho Chang, Liu Wei, Peng Yu & Sun Yuan, Wang Qiheng and Xu Zhen participated under the theme “Virgin Garden: Emersion.” This premier national pavilion of China marked a turning point in the cultural growth within Chinese contemporary art.
In 2007, having already curated the 2003 exhibition “Z.U.O.” in the context of the 50th Venice Biennale headed by Francesco Bonami, internationally renowned curator Hou Hanru highlighted the contributions of four women artists to Chinese contemporary art at the pavilion. These four female artists, Cao Fei, Kan Xuan, Shen Yuan and Yin Xiuzhen, created site-specific works in the building and at the Vergini Gardens, under the theme “Everyday Miracles.” This year, along with 7 artists who will participate at the Chinese pavilion, Chen Zhen, Chu Yun, Huang Yong Ping, Tian Tian Wang and Xu Tan will show their works in the main exhibition “Making Words.”

Liu Ding, Gravestone for Rumor Mongers, 2008, installation with steel, acrylic, paper, variable dimensions, shown in LA Galerue-Lothar Albrechr, Frankfurt, Germany at the ShContemporary Fair 2008 ⓒ Liu Ding, Courtesy LA Galerie-Lothar Albrecht.
Fang Lijun, Series 1 No.3, 1990-1, oil on canvas, 80.3x99.3cm. Collection of Vicki and Kent Logan, fractional and promised gift to SFMOMA. Courtesy SFMOMA ⓒ Fang Lijun.

He Jinwei, Is the word before us true?, 2008, oil on canvas, 18x14cmeach.

Qiu Zhijie, Domino: The small knoching down the big, wood installation, 20x30x80cm.