Professor Lee Young-chul Appointed Director of Korea Pavilion at Venice Biennale

Showing 'Campanella: The Swollen Sun' with writer and composer Kim Yoon-cheol

The Korea Arts and Culture Education Service announced on the 17th that Lee Young-cheol, a professor in the Department of Fine Arts at Kaywon University of Art and Design (64), has been selected as the artistic director of the Korean Pavilion for the Venice Biennale International Art Exhibition next year. He is an exhibition curator who has served as the artistic director of the Busan International Contemporary Art Festival (PIKAF), the Anyang Public Art Project (APAP), the inaugural director of the Nam June Paik Art Center, the founding director of the Asia Culture Institute, and the artistic director of the Creative Center at the National Asia Culture Center. Together with artist and electronic music composer Kim Yoon-chul, he will prepare an exhibition at the Korean Pavilion under the theme "Campanella: The Swollen Sun."

Campanella (1568?1639) was an Italian philosopher who advocated utopian socialist ideas with his concept of the "City of the Sun." He referred to an ideal theocratic society where private property is shared, reflecting the feelings and hopes of the poor and lower intellectual classes. Campanella also means "little bell" in Italian. "The Swollen Sun" is the title of a poem written by Kim Yoon-chul in 2011. The reconstituted selection committee last month judged that the experimental approach combining the ambiguous term and "The Swollen Sun" was sufficient to herald a new beginning for the Korean Pavilion exhibition. They also highly evaluated the artistic completeness and spatial direction excellence of Kim Yoon-chul’s interdisciplinary work based on the fusion of art and science.

Known as the "Olympics of the art world," the Venice Biennale Art Exhibition will be held from April 23 to November 27 next year in the Castello Park and Arsenale area of Venice, Italy. The theme is "The Milk of Dreams." Cecilia Alemani, chief curator of New York’s High Line Art, will serve as the general director.

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