Titled Divided We Stand, the 9th Busan Biennale in South Korea focused on the theme of divided or formerly territories created because of war, conflict, or colonization, and also considered individuals' feelings of separation, anxiety, fear, or paranoia that result from such geopolitical traumas. Featuring sixty-six artists and artist teams from thirty-four countries, the biennial was organized under the curatorial direction of Cristina Ricupero and Jörg Heiser, with the assistance of guest curator Gahee Park, and took place at the newly built Museum of Contemporary Art Busan (MoCA Busan) and the brutalist-style former Bank of Korea in Busan. The two venues reflected the biennial's theme: work shown at MOCA Busan examined past and current divisions left by the Cold War era, while the second venue comprised work that reflected on our current situation through the lens of science fiction.This comprehensive catalogue includes in-depth essays on the theme of the biennial from Boris Groys, Mohammed Hanif, Heonik Kwon, Nina Power, Hito Steyerl, and Wladimir Velminski, as well as individual artist pages and photographs from the exhibition.
Participating artists: Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Bani Abidi, Chantal Akerman, Dora Longo Bahia, Maja Bajevic, Khaled Barakeh, Yael Bartana, Jean-Luc Blanc, Oscar Chan Yik Long, Onejoon Che, Mina Cheon, Chin Cheng-Te, Sunah Choi, Phil Collins, Christoph Dettmeier, Dias and Riedweg, Smadar Dreyfus, Eva Grubinger, Joana Hadjithomas and Khalil Joreige, Ramin and Rokni Haerizadeh and Hesam Rahmanian, Flaka Haliti, Andy Hope 1930, Hsu Chia-Wei, Im Youngzoo, Joo Hwang, Yunsun Jung, Nikita Kadan, Wanuri Kahiu, Amar Kanwar, Kiluanji Kia Henda, Hayoun Kwon, Oliver Laric, Minwhee Lee & Yun Choi, Gabriel Lester and Jonas Lund, Minouk Lim, Laura Lima and Zé Carlos Garcia, Lin + Lam, Liu Ding, Dora Longo Bahia, Marko Lulic, Fabian Marti, Truwant + Rodet and Eun Kyung Park, Augustin Maurs, Metahaven, Nástio Mosquito, Henrike Naumann, Marcel Odenbach, Melik Ohanian, Ferhat Özgür, Kelvin Kyung Kun Park, Susan Philipsz, Adrian Piper, Min Jeong Seo, Bruno Serralongue, Tayfun Serttas, Hito Steyerl, Jan Svenungsson, Yuichiro Tamura, Javier Téllez, The Propeller Group, Suzanne Treister, Lars von Trier, Nomeda and Gediminas Urbonas, Jane and Louise Wilson, Ming Wong, Ulrich Wüst, Yoo Yeun Bok and Kim Yongtae, Zhang Peili
Copublished with Busan Biennale Organizing Committee
About the Author: Jörg Heiser (b.1968) is a writer, editor, and curator who lives in Berlin. Jörg Heiser (b.1968) is a writer, editor, and curator who lives in Berlin. Boris Groys is an art critic, media theorist, and philosopher. He is Global Distinguished Professor of Russian and Slavic Studies at New York University and Professor of Philosophy at the European Graduate School in Saas-Fee, Switzerland. He is the author of Art Power, History Becomes Form: Moscow Conceptualism (both published by the MIT Press), and other books. Wladimir Velminski is a Head of the Project History and Theory of Media Regimes in Eastern Europe in the Department of Media Studies at the Bauhaus University Weimar. Previously, Velminski worked at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin, at the Universität Zürich, and at ETH Zürich.
