Nicolas Bourriaud reinterprets Korea's pansori for audiences globally

GWANGJU -- The 15th edition of the Gwangju Bienanle, which kicked off on Saturday in Gwangju, in Korea's southwest, presents “Pansori, a soundscape of the 21st century" as its theme, featuring 72 artists.

Behind this theme of reinterpreting pansori -- a traditional Korean form of musical storytelling accompanied by a drummer -- is French curator Nicolas Bourriaud.

Asia’s prestigious biennale has maintained its foundation in the "Gwangju Spirit," also known as the "Gwangju Democratic Uprising." However, in celebration of its 30th anniversary, this year’s biennale signaled a move beyond the city's history and embracing a broader perspective.

While researching for the biennale, Bourriaud encountered Korean film “Seopyeonje,” directed by Im Kwon-taek in 1993, which tells the story about an old professional singer who travels the villages of Korea. The singer teaches his two children the art of singing and of “soribuk,” the traditional drum.

“The film ends with a shot in which we see the young woman, who has turned blind, singing in front of mountain,” the curator wrote on the biennale. “It was then that I realized the film’s true subject, and what Im Kwon-taek filmed with the most intensity, was the landscape – the deserted countryside of postwar Korea.”

Bourriaud interpreted the theme of pansori as a means to connect space and sound as well as singer and milieu, noting that pansori in Korean literally means “the sounds of a place where people are gathered.”

The biennale unfolds through three sections – “Feedback effect,” “Polyphony” and “Primordial Sound" -- at the Gwangju Biennale Exhibition Hall. The feedback effect occurs when two sound emitters or receivers are too close to each other. It is produced by crowding and a lack of space.

“In a world saturated with human activities, both interhuman and interspecies relations have intensified. Applying the feedback effect’s sonic pattern to the landscape, the exhibition space centers itself around the effects of industrialization upon natural ecosystems,” the description says.

One may enter the exhibition via a long and dark tunnel, where a piece by Emeka Ogboh’s “Oju 2.0” is broadcast, an urban cacophony based on sounds recorded by the artist in the streets of Lagos.

Next, visitors will encounter a seemingly empty room where ceiling slabs – typical of the interior architecture of office buildings – have been dislocated, by Cinthia Marcelle, as though by an earthquake. The biennale then expands out into Yangnim-dong, a neighborhood that features narrow alleyways with historical buildings and cafes.

The biennale was joined by 31 pavilions this year -- the most ever -- as 22 countries were invited to present their own exhibitions, including: Canada, China, Denmark, Finland, Germany, Italy, Japan, Poland, Qatar, Sweden and Switzerland.

“The Gwangju Biennale has become Asia’s prestigious biennale, which seems natural to attract many cities to join to exhibit here. More countries are expressing their will to join the biennale for the next edition, which we will have to come up with ways to control and manage the quality of the pavilions,” Park Yang-woo, president of the Gwangju Biennale Foundation, told the press on Friday.

The Gwangju Biennale runs until Dec. 1.