Naima Morelli

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Tag "korea"

There’s nothing quite like a biennale to help us take stock of the art world — not just artistic trends, but also the currents of thought flowing through culture at large. And 2024 has given us plenty of international biennales to do just that.

In the West, the Venice Biennale dominates the cultural conversation. But in Asia, two South Korean biennales serve as litmus tests for the state of contemporary Asian art. 

The first takes place in the city of Gwangju and is considered — rather hyperbolically — the Venice Biennale of Asia. The second is the Busan Biennale (originally called the Busan Youth Biennale), which these days is open to both young and not-so-young artists.

I wrote the article for Plural Art Mag

Here is the link to the piece

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Reporting from South Korea. My article on the Gwangju Biennale and the Busan Biennale is on Il manifesto, with a little extra: an interview with Nicolas Bourriaud, curator of the Gwangju Biennale.

It has been really cool to report on most of my recent trips to Asia this year for Il Manifesto – It has become a little tradition of sorts: picking up on Saturday the art supplements of the newspaper, get to my “third place” Zazie and read the issue in front of a steamy cappuccino.

Here is the link to the articles (in Italian)

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My new article for the Financia Times is about a new breed of Korean collectors, the so-called Generation MZ, a terms tha stands for millennials and Gen-Z.

They are focused on works under $50,000, either buying with family money or their own entrepreneurial cash, including at the upcoming Frieze and Kiaf fairs. 

Here is the link to the piece

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Tomtandio
CoBo has just published my interview with Indonesian collector Tom Tandio: “Is life about discovering oneself, or is it more about building oneself? If there is an activity which can respond to the evergreen nature/nurture question, that is art collecting.

In the process of grappling with their own identity through art, the best collectors understand that acquiring art is not simply an individualistic pursuit. It is rather about becoming part of an artistic ecosystem, which they can help nurture. Indonesian collector Tom Tandio exemplifies this attitude, modelling an ethic which makes the entire system grow.”

Here is the link to the interview

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ArchitectureBiennale

Hong-Kong based magazine Cobo has just published my report on this year’s Venice Architecture Biennale curated by Chilean architect Alejandro Aravena. The overarching theme for the show is “Reporting from the Front” and the Asian pavilions are very much in the spotlight.

Here’s the link to the piece

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