{"id":144311,"date":"2026-09-05T17:38:19","date_gmt":"2026-09-05T17:38:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/144311\/"},"modified":"2026-09-05T17:38:19","modified_gmt":"2026-09-05T17:38:19","slug":"gwangju-biennale-china-artists-quit-korea-art-show-over-taiwan-row","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/144311\/","title":{"rendered":"Gwangju Biennale: China artists quit Korea art show over Taiwan row"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chinese artists withdrew from a major South Korean art show after organisers allowed \u201cTaiwan\u201d to be used in the name of an exhibition, officials said Thursday, as China issued a rebuke.<\/p>\n

\"GwangjuGwangju Biennale. Photo: Gwangju Biennale.<\/p>\n

The Gwangju Biennale, one of Asia\u2019s largest contemporary art events, is due to open Saturday, with its Pavilion Project bringing together artists from around the world at venues across the southwestern city.<\/p>\n

The dispute began after Taiwanese artists said organisers had initially agreed to call their exhibition the \u201cTaiwan Pavilion\u201d, but changed the name in June to \u201cNTMoFA\u201d, the acronym for Taiwan\u2019s National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts.<\/p>\n

The change was made \u201cwithout the consent of the participating team, and brutally erased Taiwan from the poster,\u201d the artists said in a joint statement last month, accusing organisers of \u201cpolitical censorship\u201d.<\/p>\n

China insists Taiwan is part of its territory and has threatened to use force to annex the self-ruled island of more than 23 million people.<\/p>\n

Last week, the Gwangju Biennale foundation reversed course and agreed to restore the name \u201cTaiwan Pavilion\u201d.<\/p>\n

Chinese artists then halted preparations for their own pavilion, and on Thursday, the Chinese artists announced they would formally withdraw, according to local media footage.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the foundation told AFP: \u201cWe have confirmation the Chinese artists are withdrawing from the biennale.\u201d<\/p>\n

China\u2019s consulate general in Gwangju said Biennale organisers \u201copenly allowed the Taiwan region of China to participate in the exhibition using a name that is completely inconsistent with its status.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThis constitutes a serious violation of the One China principle,\u201d it said, adding: \u201cWe once again urge the organisers of the Gwangju Biennale to immediately rectify their wrongdoing.\u201d<\/p>\n

South Korea\u2019s foreign ministry spoke up to calm the row, saying that the \u201cgovernment\u2019s basic position regarding Taiwan remains unchanged\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"TaiwanTaiwan\u2019s flag. Photo: Walid Berrazeg\/HKFP.<\/p>\n

The ministry said the decision was made in the cultural and artistic sphere, and \u201cis unrelated to the South Korean government\u2019s position regarding Taiwan.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope that this issue will not affect South Korea-China relations or exchanges and cooperation between the two countries,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n

Safeguard press freedom; keep HKFP free for all readers by supporting our team<\/a><\/p>\n

Support HKFP<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0Policies & Ethics<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0Error\/typo?<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0\u00a0Contact<\/a>\u00a0 | \u00a0Newsletter<\/a>\u00a0 |\u00a0Transparency & Annual Report<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Apps<\/a><\/p>\n

Make a one-off donation.\t\t<\/p>\n

\"Google<\/a><\/p>\n

\"hkfp<\/a><\/p>\n

\"hkfp<\/a><\/p>\n

\"Youtube<\/p>\n

\"Youtube<\/p>\n

Dateline:<\/p>\n

Seoul,\u00a0South Korea<\/p>\n

Type of Story: News Service<\/p>\n

Produced externally by an organization we trust to adhere to high journalistic standards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Chinese artists withdrew from a major South Korean art show after organisers allowed \u201cTaiwan\u201d to be used in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":144312,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[113,10733,34663,31,33,1955],"class_list":["post-144311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-korea","tag-afp","tag-censorship","tag-gwangju-biennale","tag-korea","tag-south-korea","tag-taiwan"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144311"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144311\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/144312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/korea\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}