“Divided We Stand,” the 9th Busan Biennale, opened over the same weekend as the 70th anniversary celebration of the founding of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, which split the peninsula in 1948 and precipitated the Korean War. On TV, with limited English-language options, CNN International played a rotating news package which contrasted Kim Jong-un’s notably missile-less parade celebration with “the latest bombshells from the White House.” State-restricted coverage of the Arirang Mass Games in Pyongyang, flashed between segments on far-right riots in Germany, and seemingly endless, stale, rhetorical discussions about whether the umpire at the US Open displayed sexism toward Serena Williams in her match against Naomi Osaka. “Divided we stand” is certainly a popular way to describe the zeitgeist. In Busan, the biennial (curated by a committee led by artistic director, Cristina Ricupero, curator Jörg Heiser, and guest curator Gahee Park) gathers works by South Korean and international artists who address the theme of split territories, with reference to various international separations—physical, ideological, and psychological. The triumph of the presentation is the way in which the exhibition, led by two Europeans, highlights a considered selection of work by South Korean artists who exhibit internationally but are lesser-known on such …