The Gwangju Biennale releases the first issue of Roundtable

Pedro Reyes, The Museum of Hypothetical Lifetimes, SANATORIUM, 2011

In advance of the September 7 opening of the Gwangju Biennale, the curatorial team – an all-female powerhouse of Nancy Adajania, Wassan Al-Khudhairi, Mami Kataoka, Sunjung Kim, Carol Yinghua Lu, and Alia Swastika  – has released the first issue of its e-journal, Roundhouse. The journals are intended to explore the Biennale’s six sub-themes: Logging In and Out of Collectivity / Re-visiting History / Transient Encounters / Intimacy, Autonomy and Anonymity / Back to the Individual Experience / Impact of Mobility on Space and Time.

Edited by Lu, this inaugural outing supplements its structural “round-table” discussion with everything from Boris Groys‘ take on philosopher Alexandre Kojève, to Kanye West/Jay-Z lyrics, to the 4th segment of the ARPANET Dialogues (this one featuring Ayn Rand, Yoko Ono, Jim Henson and Sidney Nolan), to an email exchange between Darius Mikšys and Kęstutis Kuizinas, the director of CAC Vilnius (which, incidentally, just kicked off its own “Mindaugas Triennial” this week.)

We know it’s the last days of summer for most of us, but it’s certainly worth a read!

The Biennale runs from September 7 – November 11, 2012. A complete list of the 93 participating artists – including Groys, Anri Sala,  Chto Delat?, Pedro Reyes, Rirkrit Tiravanija, Wael Shawky and Baibakov alums Slavs and Tatars and Joana Hadjithomas & Khalil Joreige, among many, many others –  is available here. For more information, check the site.