![\"\"](\"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Hyeree-Ro_Binna-Choi_Goen-Choi.jpg\")
“Does an entomologist change the world? Does an air-conditioner repair technician change the world? We may be attributing too much weight to art”
\n\n\n\nArtReview sent a questionnaire to artists and curators exhibiting in and curating the various national pavilions of the 2026 Venice Biennale, the responses to which will be published daily in the leadup to and during the Venice Biennale, which runs from 9 May through 22 November.
\n\n\n\nGoen Choi and Hyeree Ro are representing South Korea; the pavilion is in the Giardini.
\n\n\n\nCelebrating Visions. Versace partners with ArtReview to share stories from the 2026 Venice Biennale.
\n\n\n\nArtReview Tell ArtReview what you plan to exhibit in Venice. What has influenced or inspired you?
\n\n\n\nGoen Choi The work I am presenting at the Korean Pavilion in Venice, Meridian, is a sculptural installation in which copper plumbing pipes are cut open and ruptured so that they appear to pierce through the building. The instant the pipe is split in half, it is no longer whole, yet the opened structure retains the strength of the metal in a more flexible and elastic state. The lines formed in this way traverse the interior and exterior of the Korean Pavilion, crossing its various boundaries and generating a kind of expansive resonance.
\n\n\n\nIn geography, meridian refers to the longitudinal line that connects the North and South Poles, while in East Asian medicine, meridian indicates a pathway through which vital energy flows within the human body. As invisible lines that traverse the inner structures of the body and of space – generating movement and direction – the concept resonates with my ongoing interest in the unseen infrastructures that sustain and shape our environments.
\n\n\n\nThis work begins from the environment of the Giardini itself. In this place, where natural ecologies intersect with the geopolitical order of nation-states, the twisted and ruptured pipes intervene in standardised systems, revealing the unstable relations between what appear to be fixed structures. Meridian does not exist as an object separate from the Pavilion, but as a condition that is entangled with the building itself.
\n\n\n\nHyeree Ro The project I’m presenting in Venice is titled Bearing. The concept came about in response to artistic director Binna Choi’s proposal for the Korean Pavilion. At the time, my thoughts working towards my next project happened to be very fitting for what Binna was envisioning for the pavilion. Bearing is composed of membranelike waxed fabric walls that enclose eight stations with specific functions such as mourning, remembering, mending, living and so on. I created these stations while thinking about what kind of person I would like to live as and, if I have a child, what kind of person I wish they would grow up to be: a person who sees what’s happening in the world, not just their immediate surroundings, not just what’s happening right now but also what has happened in the past, and has their own perspective on what kind of world they want to build. As for the spatial installation, I was thinking a lot about certain Korean gardens and temples that house independent pavilions.
\n\n\n\nAR In what ways (if at all) does your work relate to the theme of the Biennale exhibition, In Minor Keys?
\n\n\n\nGC What Meridian seeks to reveal is not grand narratives but smaller forces – like the Pavilion’s own plumbing, the traces of its vanished staircase and its relationship with its neighbouring national pavilions – bringing into view the subtle movements that surround us. In this sense, I feel it resonates naturally with the ethos of In Minor Keys, both in terms of its low vibrations and its attentiveness to the periphery.
\n\n\n\nHR The work invites people to take a walk, visit each station, sit and contemplate. It holds a space for staying with, waiting and thinking.
\n\n\n\nAR Why is the Venice Biennale still important, if at all?
\n\n\n\nGC The national pavilion system of the Biennale, by its very structure, can produce forms of exclusion and tension. Yet at the same time it is rare to encounter an environment where architectures and artworks shaped by such different histories, temporalities and conditions are gathered so densely in a single place. Within that structure, each work comes to be read in relation to the others, reflecting and refracting one another. In this sense, I still feel that the framework retains its relevance.
\n\n\n\nHR It’s a place where hundreds of artists present their work in this one city at the same time. It’s like a marker of the time, which is an interesting and important concept.
\n\n\n\nAR What role does a national pavilion play at a time of increasing confrontational nationalisms? Is it about expressing difference or commonality?
\n\n\n\nGC Rather than a site used to declare identity, I think a national pavilion can function as a place that explores relationships. Just as the architecture of the Korean Pavilion was formed through negotiation with its surrounding conditions, this year’s presentation seeks to establish connections with our neighbouring national pavilions. Even as we acknowledge differences, it is equally important to consider the conditions through which such differences have been produced.
\n\n\n\nHR As I mentioned above, Venice is a special place as artists and curators around the world present their works at the same time. I would say it is about difference and commonality, and being okay with both.
\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Meridian_work-in-progress-03_GoenChoi_2026-1230x820.jpg\")
![\"\"](\"https://backend.artreview.com/wp-content/uploads/2026/05/Bearing_work-in-progress-01_2026_HyereeRo-1230x820.jpg\")
AR Who, for you, is the most important artist (in any discipline) that your country has produced?
\n\n\n\nGC As part of my research into the Korean Pavilion for this project, I ended up looking through the archives and revisiting the many artists who have passed through this space. I remember seeing Haegue Yang’s Korean Pavilion exhibition as a student. It was the first presentation that made me consciously aware of the pavilion itself as a spatial presence. The way the building operated almost like a sensory device led me to see the pavilion as a structure where relationships and movements emerge.
\n\n\n\nAt the same time, the artist I found myself returning to the most during this process was Nam June Paik. During the early stages of our work together, our Korean Pavilion team studied Paik closely through site visits and archival research. When discussing Korean art, Paik remains an indispensable figure. International exhibitions such as the Venice Biennale are spaces where artworks are presented, but they are also structures in which national and cultural standing can become a form of competition. Within that context, Paik’s work demonstrated how art is entangled not only with individual expression but also with national identity, political circumstances and the international institutions of the artworld.
\n\n\n\nIn particular, he created works that – even within the context of international exhibitions like Venice – were positioned within the framework of the nation while simultaneously exceeding it. In this sense, it is possible to understand Nam June Paik not just as an artist representing a single country but as a figure who revealed the intersections between nation and art, politics and media, and the institutional structures of international exhibitions.
\n\n\n\nHR Han Kang. Her form, subject matter and perspective are painfully poignant.
\n\n\n\nAR What is something you want people to know about your nation that they might not know already?
\n\n\n\nGC Korea is a country that has experienced colonial rule, war, industrialisation, democratisation and rapid urbanisation within a very short span of time. Within this compressed history, we’ve seen the emergence of a great deal of complex tensions and layered memories. In such a rapidly changing environment, the capacity to continually adjust relationships with surrounding conditions and to reconfigure direction has emerged as a key aspect in shaping Korean society.
\n\n\n\nHR People are resilient and serious about their nationhood, democracy and justice.
\n\n\n\nAR Given that you are exhibiting in a national pavilion, is there something (a quality or an issue or attitude) that distinguishes the art of that nation from that of others? That makes it particular? Are there specific contexts that it responds to? Or do you think that art is a universal language that goes beyond social, political or geographic boundaries?
\n\n\n\nGC I don’t know that I can describe Korean art through a single fixed characteristic. That said, the rapid historical transformations Korea has undergone seem to have shaped the sensibilities and attitudes of many artists. Particularly noteworthy I think, is the fact that Korean ‘modernity’ was not formed through a direct encounter with the West but came to us by way of Japan. As a result, tradition, modernity and external aesthetic languages became entangled within a relatively short period of time – which has generated a certain tension and hybrid sensibility within Korean art. In a rapidly shifting environment, artists seem to have developed an instinct for reading structures, moving within them and responding to them.
\n\n\n\nThe Korean Pavilion itself reflects this context, embodying – in a small, architectural form – the relational dynamism that has shaped Korean society. Meridian engages with the invisible forces and flows that surround the Korean Pavilion. Art becomes operative when different places and conditions intersect and new relationships are formed.
\n\n\n\nHR I believe art is a universal language that may attempt to bridge social, political or geographic boundaries.
\n\n\n\nAR What, other than art, are you looking forward to seeing – or doing – while you are in Venice?
\n\n\n\nGC While I’m in Venice, I’d like to sign up to a neighbourhood swimming pool and go for a swim every morning.
\n\n\n\nHR I’m looking forward to cooking with the local produce.
\n\n\n\nAR Could you give us a brief overview of your average working day while creating your presentation in Venice?
\n\n\n\nGC I spend most of my time in the studio. Although my body has been in Seoul, I have felt as though I have actually been in the Giardini since last year. Using as many tools as possible – hand drawings, 3D-modelling, scale models and experiments with materials and structures – I’ve spent my time picturing my way into the distant site.
\n\n\n\nHR I work 10am to 6pm in the studio. I generally try not to do meetings, emails and other administrative tasks during that time. I schedule studio visits and meetings towards the end of the day so that I can focus on studio work before then. In the studio, it is a mixture of physical production, drawing and working with scale models. I pack my coffee and lunch so that I don’t have to leave the building.
\n\n\n\nAR Can art really change the world?
\n\n\n\nGC I was actually talking with a friend about this not long ago. There is art that tries to change the world, art that does not believe art can change the world and art that has grown weary of the idea that art changes the world. It made me think about the many different attitudes that surround art. And then there’s also work made by people who are not particularly interested in changing the world, or who doubt that possibility, yet that paradoxically sometimes ends up affecting the world anyway. Maybe for some, the point is in simply finding some enjoyment in the act of making it. Still, I do think art can change the world. At the very least, it’s changed my own life quite a lot. But the way art brings about change feels different from the way politics does. I don’t think art exists in order to change the world, it’s almost as if the world changes as a kind of side effect. Or perhaps it’s more accurate to say that as the world changes, art reflects those changes. After all, we make art according to the world as it is. Seen that way, it might be somewhat arrogant to think that art alone can accomplish anything on its own, and perhaps the question itself presupposes that kind of arrogance. Does an entomologist change the world? Does an air-conditioner repair technician change the world? When you ask questions like that it seems possible that we may be attributing too much weight to art. I often find myself thinking about what artists like Lee Mal-nyeon or Kian84 do and I do feel that in certain ways, they change the world. At the same time they are also products of the world. Things do change in the end, but perhaps not because someone intends them to. I think maybe, it happens in ways that can’t really be planned.
\n\n\n\nHR Maybe.
\n\n\n\nThe 61st Venice Biennale runs 9 May through 22 November 2026
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Goen Choi and Hyeree Ro are representing South Korea; the pavilion is in the Giardini.","article_related_articles":[{"id":119507,"title":"Khaled Sabsabi on Representing Australia at the 61st Venice Biennale","path":"/khaled-sabsabi-on-representing-australia-at-the-61st-venice-biennale/","author":{"name":"ArtReview","path":"/author/artreview/"},"category":{"name":"Venice Biennale: Artist 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