On the 12th, the Gwangju Biennale Foundation announced the theme of the 16th Gwangju Biennale, 《You Must Change Your Life》, at a press conference.
 
The exhibition title is inspired by the final line of the poem Archaic Torso of Apollo by Rainer Maria Rilke, drawing attention to the transformative power of art in responding to the various crises and urgent issues we face today.
 
Published in 1908, Rilke’s poem features an imagined fragmented ancient sculpture. The statue evokes an overwhelming emotional energy in the viewer, urging a new resolution and a change in life. This powerful encounter ultimately culminates in the poem’s final line—“You must change your life”—which brings the poem to its dramatic climax.

However, the poem does not specify how one should change one’s life. Instead, it leaves open the possibility of transformation, preserving a potential space in which change might occur.
 
Beginning from this possibility, the 16th Gwangju Biennale approaches “change” as an artistic method, exploring the ways in which artists experiment with new modes of living, structures of power, and forms of relationship.
 
Artistic Director Ho Tzu Nyen stated, “This exhibition will be a journey in which visitors experience ‘change’ at various scales and speeds.” He continued, “Few cities embody the ideals and experiences of transformation as powerfully as Gwangju. The city’s history of struggle for democracy continues to resonate deeply around the world today. Here, change is not an abstract concept but a living history.”

The core of the 16th Gwangju Biennale, 《You Must Change Your Life》, lies in the idea that transformation is sustained over time through experimentation and practice. Repeated acts of practice shape our worldview and ultimately determine the ways in which we live. In this sense, the exhibition regards artistic practice as a living example of creative resilience—a way of responding to change through imagination and action.
 
The exhibition also begins by considering artistic practice as a method through which the experience of change is physically encountered and accumulated. Participating artists explore the various conflicts and challenges faced by individuals and communities through material, psychological, and lived transformations.
 
This edition of the Biennale adopts a more condensed format, featuring the smallest number of participating artists in its history. By focusing on density rather than scale, the exhibition brings together works that traverse different moments in the artists’ lives and practices, offering a more in-depth approach. Rather than presenting individual works as isolated fragments, it seeks to reveal the evolving forms of artistic practice that unfold over time.

《You Must Change Your Life》 examines how transformation operates across the body and throughout society. It also focuses on the ways in which art, through repetitive and sustained practice, can cultivate the capacity to recalibrate the directions of forces that move the world.
 
Commissioned works that exemplify the theme of this edition of the Gwangju Biennale will be presented by Byungjun Kwon and Park Chan-kyong, Jacqueline Kiyomi Gork, and Hwayeon Nam.
 
Among them, Byungjun Kwon and Park Chan-kyong are currently developing a participatory sound installation project inspired by soe-geollip, a traditional communal practice in which metal objects were collected from members of a community to produce ritual instruments wishing for collective well-being. For this project, the artists are inviting citizens to donate unused metal objects, which will then be incorporated into the installation.
 
This edition of the Biennale is led by Artistic Director Ho Tzu Nyen, with curators Park Gahee, Brian Kuan Wood, and Che Kyongfa. It will be held for 72 days, from September 5 to November 15, 2026, at the Gwangju Biennale Exhibition Hall in Gwangju.
 
Further details on participating artists and commissioned works will be announced sequentially in the coming months.

References

• 광주비엔날레 보도자료 (Gwangju Biennale Press Release)