Korean and Japanese Art Through the Lens of the Paris Biennale... MMCA to Host International Symposium on the 30th

[Financial News] An international symposium will look back at the Paris Biennale, which served as a pathway to the international art world for young artists from Korea and Japan. Through testimonies from artists who participated at the time and analyses by researchers, it will examine postwar exchanges between Korean and Japanese art.
According to the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea, on the 14th, it will hold “The Paris Biennale and Korean and Japanese Art” at the Multi-purpose Hall of MMCA Seoul at 1 p.m. on the 30th. Six researchers, artists and critics from Korea, Japan and France will give presentations.
The event will share the findings of joint research conducted by MMCA and the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, in 2025–2026. Japan’s National Art Research Center also collaborated, and the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, will present the research findings in an exhibition next February.
The Paris Biennale was an international exhibition held 13 times in Paris, France, from 1959 to 1985. Artists aged 20 to 35 took part, and the event gave young Korean and Japanese artists an opportunity to break out of their national art scenes and enter the international arena.
Lee Ufan participated as a Korean artist in 1971 and served from 1973 to 1977 on a committee recommending Korean artists to participate in the Paris Biennale.
In Part 1, “The History and Reinterpretation of the Paris Biennale,” Elitza Dulguerova, an associate professor at Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne University, will present findings from related international research. Shiori Sahara, a curator-researcher at the National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo, and Jeon Yu-shin, a curator-researcher at MMCA, will each examine Japan’s and Korea’s participation, respectively, and its art-historical significance.
In Part 2, “The Paris Biennale: On the Ground and Its Institutions,” artist Susumu Koshimizu, who participated in 1971, and artist Lee Kang-so, who participated in 1975, will share their experiences. Lee Kang-so submitted “Untitled 75031,” a work that captured in photographs the movements of a chicken and the traces it left at the time.
In 1971, artists were selected by country, but in 1975, international committee members made the final decisions from candidates shortlisted by a recommendation committee. Critic Toshiaki Minemura, who served as the sole Asian member of the international committee from 1973 to 1977, will explain these changes and the Biennale’s significance and limitations.
Registration opens on the MMCA website at 10 a.m. on the 16th. The first 250 people can attend for free.
Acting MMCA Director Yun Tae-uk said, “This is a meaningful occasion to renew today the exchanges among Korea, Japan and France forged through the Paris Biennale.”

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