The inauguration of the second edition of the Italian Pavilion, as part of the 15th edition of the Gwangju Biennale, was held on 7 September at the Dong-gok Art Museum in Gwangju.
The initiative was organized by the Italian Cultural Institute of Seoul, the Gwangju Biennale, the Bomun Welfare Foundation and the Dong-gok Art Museum, with the support of the Mazzoleni gallery, London – Turin, the Bomun Welfare Foundation, as well as the institutional partnership with the Seoul Institute of the Arts, and the technical partnership for sound of Bang&Olufsen.
The event was attended by the Italian Ambassador to Seoul, Emilia Gatto; the Director of the Italian Cultural Institute in Seoul, Michela Linda Magrì; the curator and artistic director of the Pavilion, Dr. Soik Jung, together with prominent figures such as the President of the Gwangju Biennale, Park Yangwoo; the mayor of Gwangju, Kijung Kang, and the President of the Bomun Welfare Foundation, Jeong YoungHyun, the organization that hosted the Pavilion.
The name of the Italian Pavilion, open until January 31, is Ministries of Loneliness and it aims to examine the relationship between the individual (I) and the social/collective environment (We), in the context of the multitudes of “certainties” taken for granted, which are now collapsing. While the main exhibition of the Gwangju Biennale, “Pansori – A Soundscape of the 21st Century”, curated by Nicolas Bourriaud, deals with issues regarding the “great outside” – understood as the external world in its cosmological vastness – through sound, “Ministries of Loneliness” focuses on the relationship of the I with its surroundings (We).
Ministries of Loneliness is a new chapter of “Ministry of Loneliness”, a context-specific project on which artist Rebecca Moccia, winner of the Cantica 21 competition, has been working since 2021. In particular, the artist has created a series of workshops involving students from the Seoul Institute of the Arts in a participatory research process. The students have contributed not only as subjects of dialogue, but also as co-researchers to find and document places, stories, situations and media that reveal the roots and development of loneliness in Korea.
Inside the Museum, an exhibition named “Italian path” has been set up, dedicated to the activities of the Italian Cultural Institute, curated by designer/artist Andea Vecera.