South Korea to Restart Venice Biennale Selection due to Conflict of Interest

The Arts Council Korea (ARKO) will be re-forming the selection committee in charge of appointing the artistic director of South Korea’s pavilion at the upcoming 2022 Venice Biennale. All of the selection committee’s previous members resigned on July 6 after ARKO had restarted the screening process for the artistic director in response to complaints about a conflict of interest by a jury member. The pavilion’s artistic director was originally going to be named in mid-July, but the announcement is now postponed indefinitely.

Following the final round of screenings in late June, ARKO received an anonymous complaint, stating that two of the four final candidates being considered for the artistic-director position were affiliated with one of the selection committee members. Both candidates are currently involved at the institution where the committee member works, but neither informed the committee about these roles in their applications, which is “an unprecedented case” according to The Korea Herald. On June 30, ARKO released a re-selection plan involving the exclusion of said committee member, with the final appointment postponed to the fourth week of July.

However, ARKO’s decision to exclude the committee member led the remaining six committee constituents, including two government officials and four art experts, to resign. According to ARKO’s statement on July 7, during the first re-examination meeting held on July 6, the representatives gave up their voting rights. Having already screened 12 applicants in the first round of interviews before reaching a shortlist of four, all members agreed that it was impossible to restart the process without any biases, leading to a unanimous call for a new selection committee to be formed.

ARKO has yet to confirm new selection committee members and an adjusted schedule for the appointment of the artistic director. The upcoming Venice Biennale is slated to open on April 23, 2022.

Judy Chiu is an editorial intern at ArtAsiaPacific.

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