Taiwan art group rejects ‘wrong name’ claim over Gwangju Biennale pullout

“Taiwan Pavilion” was not an erroneous name, Taiwan’s Visual Arts Association said, pushing back against the Chinese team’s decision to withdraw from the Gwangju Biennale.

The association issued its latest statement late Wednesday after the biennale restored the name. The Chinese curatorial team had held a news conference at the planned exhibition site on Sept. 3 and announced that it would pull out, saying the organizers had used an incorrect term related to Taiwan and allowed political considerations to enter the arts.

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Taiwan Pavilion is not an incorrect name.

Taiwan’s group offered a different account of the naming dispute. It said “Taiwan Pavilion” had been used consistently in Taiwan’s proposal, contract and early preparations. In June, the Gwangju Biennale Foundation changed the English name to “NTMoFA Pavilion,” based on the abbreviation for Taiwan’s National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts. Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture and the museum objected, and the foundation agreed on Aug. 25 to restore “Taiwan Pavilion.”

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We never asked you to leave.

The association said that if the name change represented political interference, the same standard should apply when the original name was restored. It also said the Chinese pavilion involved three curators and 19 artists under the theme “Iron Silk Road,” with about 70% of the works installed when preparations stopped. The group said it had not asked the Chinese artists to leave, only that the contracted name should not have been changed without the participants’ consent.

The 16th Gwangju Biennale was scheduled to open on Sept. 5. Based on publicly available information, the association said the Chinese pavilion’s exhibition space would be empty. “We will not say that this is the result of Taiwan’s success in making its case,” it said. “We will explain how it became empty.”

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No one has to change their name.