The Gwangju Biennale’s $100,000 Art Prize, funded by Korean artist Park Seo-Bo, has been cancelled despite announcing its first winner Oum Jeongsoon last month.
The Gwangju Biennale was founded in 1995 to commemorate the city’s democratic spirit during the suppressed Gwangju Uprising in 1980. However, protesters have noted that Park, who came out of 1960s Dansaekhwa movement that prioritised monochromatic abstraction, remained silent amid the country’s democratic struggles and has nothing to do with Gwangju Biennale’s progressive cause. Some protesting voices have emerged before the award ceremony and gained considerable support afterwards. According to Artnet, protest leaflets urge the organisers to establish prizes named after Oh Yoon, a key figure of Korea’s 1980s Minjung art movement, or pioneering video artist Nam June Paik.
‘The Gwangju Biennale Foundation first launched the prize sympathizing with Park Seo-Bo’s intention to support young artists. Following the discontinuation of the award, the Gwangju Biennale Foundation plans to consider opinions from different communities to establish a more progressive award system,’ the biennial responded in a statement.
