Liberation Space: Fortress/Nest

The Korean Pavilion of the 61st International Venice Biennale presents Liberation Space: Fortress/Nest, an exhibition project curated by Binna Choi with the participation of artists Goen Choi and Hyeree Ro, commissioned by Arts Council Korea (ARKO).

As our post-global world faces multiple crises, Liberation Space: Fortress/Nest would like to offer a living, breathing monument to what we call “liberation space” by repurposing the Korean Pavilion during the 61st International Venice Biennale. Together, Binna Choi, Goen Choi, and Hyeree Ro have considered the specific geopolitical and historical meanings of the Korean Pavilion as the embodiment of a nation in constant making, reframing it beyond the ambivalent status of a “fortress/nest.”

The expression “liberation space,” or haebang gonggan in Korean, generally refers to the transitional period between 1945, when Korea was freed from Japanese colonial rule, and 1948, when the government of Korea—or more precisely, South Korea—was established. A period of exhilaration after nearly forty years of occupation, this was also a time of intense yearning, dreaming, and striving for a more just and fairer society, for better lives for all; conflicts and tension among different ideological positions had to be resolved while new foreign powers, notably the USA and Soviet Union, encroached, aiming to control the still-forming nation. Our proposition is to understand this time and space not as a singular event in the past, but as an unfinished, durational practice marked by ruptures and struggles and sustained by endurance and the ethos of a sovereign commons, confirmed by the recent experience of the 2024/25 assemblies in the wake of the illegal decree of Martial Law two winters ago. Indeed, a true “liberation space” might well be any such space of life affirming and world building, one we may all create again and again, in any place and time. While drawing from the Korean experience, Liberation Space: Fortress/Nest also learns from and shares in like experiences worldwide, from Hawaii to Palestine, Nepal to Sudan, Iran to Hungary, and so on—endless.

The shape of our monument is determined by the two intertwining sculptural forms: Meridian, offered by Goen Choi in collaboration with Thirdhand, and Bearing by Hyeree Ro and her collaborators. Opposite in material nature, Meridian is constructed of cut and torn copper pipes, while Bearing constitutes thousands of wax-coated organza circles and stationary wooden or clay structures, each in mutual tension yet also correspondence as they open up pathways for visitors to walk along, moving into, out of, and around the Pavilion. Common in their domestic, sometimes intimate functionalities, both pieces work against the hard, architectural frame of the nation-state, opening up its blockages and extending circular lines as measures of time and movement. What results is the creation of a delicate yet safe space that provides “stations” for the basic yet essential activities of liberatory praxis: outlooking, mourning, living, planning, waiting, mending, remembering, and sharing—the activities and movements that require our care in order to bear new lives, new nations, and new worlds alike.

Liberation Space: Fortress/Nest also implements an inaugural Fellowship of five cultural practitioners to nourish and continue these stories, expanding the relational field of the living monument: writer and singer Lang Lee, Nobel Prize-winning novelist Han Kang, photographer Yezoi Hwang, activist-farmer Huju Kim, and artist Christian Nyampeta. For the seven-month duration of the exhibition, Liberation Space: Fortress/Nest will also be attended by a cohort of “Bearers” who ritualistically undertake a daily procession around the Pavilion. In addition, our central practice of gathering and working and caring together continues through and beyond the exhibition period, including a historic and ongoing collaboration with the Japan Pavilion (artist Ei Arakawa-Nash, co-curators: Mizuki Takahashi and Lisa Horikawa) and a “Liberation Space Network,” to be cultivated and grown alongside the homecoming (ARKO Art Center, Spring 2027) and travelling exhibitions (LA Korean Culture Center, Autumn 2027) to come. 

In partnership with Hyundai Motor.

Sponsorsed by Doosan Yonkang Foundation, Shinhan Bank, YS Kim Foundation & Canal Projects, CHUNMAN Foundation for Arts & Culture, Yang Won Sun Foundation, Bulgari Korea, Communitas Archive, The Getty Foundation, Vohm, RE:ART Companions and individual donors.

Supported by Harper’s BAZAAR Korea, HWAYO, taegeukdang.

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