The 2026 Korean Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia - Liberation Space: Fortress/Nest

Introducing the 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia

The 61st International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia unfolds under the theme “In Minor Keys,” using the musical concept of the minor key as a metaphor to explore contemporary emotions, sensory perception, and the ways we relate to one another. Alongside the national pavilions in the Arsenale and the Giardini, including the Korean Pavilion, the exhibition brings together 110 participating artists and a diverse program of collateral events presented across Venice, inviting visitors on a seven-month journey.

Transforming the Korean Pavilion into a Living Monument to "Liberation Space"

Goen Choi | Meridian
Goen Choi’s Meridian builds on her decade-long sculptural practice using industrial materials commonly found in domestic and urban infrastructures. For the Korean Pavilion, copper pipes traverse interior and exterior architectures, evoking linear forms such as needles, spears, branches, or beams of light. As these forms weave through and pierce the Pavilion, they simultaneously suggest processes of circulation, connection, and healing.

Hyeree Ro | Bearing
Hyeree Ro’s Bearing presents an expansion of her scope of practice, departing from her longstanding (anti-)narrative approach and explorations of family relations shaped by sociopolitical and economic conditions. For this exhibition, Ro positions the work within intimate and collective registers by including themes of new life, care, community, and nationhood.

Bearing considers the “womb” as a sanctuary or temple for new life, where death is not an endpoint but a condition that enables life and movement. Composed of approximately 4,000 organza elements coated in wax and layered like fish scales or lotus leaves, the installation forms a “pavilion within the pavilion”. Resisting enclosure, it guides visitors through a carefully choreographed passage punctuated by eight stations, each prompting an essential act of life, including mourning, remembering, observing, living, waiting, planning, sharing, and repairing. Every day, a “Bearer” walks through these stations twice, practicing each different mode of engaging with “Liberation Space.”

Fostering the network of “Liberation Space,” the Pavilion also brings together Fellows from various fields, whose stories unfold through The Reader, further expanding the exhibition’s experiential scope. The first volume provides audiences with deeper contextual knowledge, with a second volume to follow.