Brian Hioeby Brian Hioe
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Photo Credit: Screenshot
TEN TAIWANESE ARTISTS and curators have criticized the 16th Gwangju Biennale over what appears to be an act of censorship aimed at pleasing China.
In particular, the ten artists and curators would have participated under what was known as the “Taiwan Pavilion”, as organized by the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. However, though this was agreed on beforehand, promotional images released by the Gwangju Biennale on its website instead censored any mention of Taiwan, so as to refer to the artists as displaying as “NTMOFA.” NTMOFA is an abbreviation of the National Taiwan Museum of Five Arts.
Subsequently, the ten artists and curators released a statement criticizing the Gwangju Biennale. In the statements, the artists stated efforts at negotiating with the Gwangju Biennale were ignored, and criticized what was termed “political censorship.”
The signatories of the statement were Li Yi-fan, Juan Po-yuan, Lin Yu-liang, Chang Wen-hsuan, Hsu Che-yu, Chen Hsiang-wen, Chen Wan-yin, Cheng Hsien-yu, Chen Ting-ting, and Su Hui-yu. Notably, before this incident, Taiwanese artists had participated in the 2025 Gwangju Design Biennale under the name “Taiwan Pavilion” without incident.
Subsequently, the ten artists and curators were echoed by a group of South Korean artists known as “Artists Against Censorship.” The statement criticized the actions of the biennale, particularly as the Biennale was formed as a response to the 1980 Gwangju Uprising, which opposed the military dictatorship of Chun Doo-hwan. As such, the statement emphasized that it was “disheartening to learn that such political censorship is being carried out in Gwangju, which is called the ‘hometown of Korean democracy.’”
The poster in question
The statement by Artists Against Censorship hit out at artistic censorship as a whole, then went on to cite the case of censorship at the Gwangju Biennale as an example. The statement reads, “[I]n today’s international art world, artworks are being unilaterally altered or removed, exhibitions and speeches are being canceled, and artists and cultural workers are being forced into silence based on discriminatory and exclusionary perceptions of their nationality, race, gender, religion, and political stance. In particular, in a situation where the political and diplomatic pressures and economic influence of some countries unfairly interfere with the realm of cultural arts, the Biennale has the duty to […] to ensure the autonomy of exhibitions and creations.”
This would, of course, be far from the first time that Taiwanese artists have faced political censorship overseas–or in South Korea. In 2016, a notable case involved the Taiwanese member of TWICE, Tzuyu, being made to publicly apologize for waving the ROC flag in a video, in an incident that drew significant backlash immediately ahead of the presidential election. More recently, Taiwan found itself in a diplomatic spat with South Korea over South Korea’s e-arrival system labeling Taiwan as part of China. All this goes to show China’s rising influence in South Korea, then.
For its part, the Gwangju Biennale now claims that Taiwan applied to participate as an institution, hence the naming, something denied by the Ministry of Culture. On the other hand, the Ministry of Culture has stated that it will take appropriate action for the unilateral violation of the agreement by Gwangju Biennale organizers.