The Singaporean visual artist and curator Ho Tzu Nyen has been appointed Artistic Director of the 16th Gwangju Biennale.
As an artist, Ho Tzu Nyen works mainly in film, video installation and performance, exploring the convergence between the construction of identity and the fabrication of history. His ongoing project, The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia, seeks to document the fact, fiction, various indigenous and colonial intrigues and ideologies that comprise the modern historical narrative of the subregion.
Ho has represented Singapore at the 2011 Venice Biennale, and participated in the 10th Shanghai Biennale (2014), Aichi Triennale (2019) and Sharjah Biennial 14 (2019). He also cocurated the 7th Asian Art Biennale, The Strangers from Beyond the Mountain and the Sea (2019).
Ho said in a statement: ‘This edition will bring together the energies, propositions, practices, and ideas that have inspired and propelled me over the past two decades. It will be an opportunity to explore how the practice of artistic transformation resonates with Gwangju’s legacy of democratic change. Rather than delivering a single message, this Biennale will seek to generate propositions for change that are shared and shaped by all of us.’
The last edition of the biennale, Pansori – A Soundscape of the 21st Century, was directed by the French curator Nicolas Bourriaud.
The 16th Gwangju Biennale will open in September 2026.
