Birke Gorm
16th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea
Austrian Pavilion
September – November 2026
Under the title the evening and the morning and the night, artist Birke Gorm will transform the Austrian Pavilion at the 16th Gwangju Biennale both physically and conceptually into an attic – a place that is used for storage, mainly left undisturbed. Just as an attic stores old, forgotten, or hidden objects, it can symbolise the mind’s storage of repressed memories, unprocessed emotions as well as the societal influences that command our identities.
Gorm’s work investigates the life cycle of common objects, interrogating their ideological framework around the narration of history and changing attitudes to social representation, gender, industrialization, and value. In line with Gorm’s artistic production, the exhibition at the Austrian Pavilion will consist largely of discarded and repurposed materials, collected by the artist in Vienna and on site in Gwangju.
“Through careful attention, re-appropriation, and the use of traditional craft and domestic production techniques, I explore how care, time, and manual labour can reframe what seems disposable as something that carries valuable information. It is an honour to represent Austria – which has been my home for more than a decade – at the Gwangju Biennale, and I deeply value the opportunity to take part in the exchange between Austria, South Korea and the international art scene,” said Birke Gorm.
Birke Gorm (born 1986 in Hamburg, Germany) is a visual artist based in Vienna. The exhibition will be curated by Attilia Fattori Franchini, founder and director of KUNSTVEREIN GARTENHAUS, Vienna and director of the festival curated by.
The Austrian Pavilion is commissioned by Phileas - The Austrian Office for Contemporary Art and co-financed by the Federal Ministry for Housing, Arts, Culture, Media and Sport.
