Where are we now? Thirty-year history of Korean Pavilion at Venice Biennale

VENICE, Italy — For the past three decades, South Korean curators and architects have presented their discourse to global audiences at the Korean Pavilion, the last permanent national pavilion at Giardini, one of the Venice Biennale's main venues.

Commemorating the pavilion's 30th anniversary, architects, curators, experts and city officials gathered on May 8 to attend the “30 Years of the Korean Pavilion” forum held at the Fondazione Querini Stampalia, and reflect on the legacy and meaning of the Venice Biennale pavilion built in 1995.

Franco Mancuso, co-architect of the Korean Pavilion who collaborated with the late Korean architect Kim Seok-chul, walked forum attendees through the history of the Venice Biennale and shared his experience of designing the pavilion. He donated the design materials of the Korean Pavilion to the Korean government in 2023.

“The Biennale is an institution unique in the world. Equally unique is the location, the Giardini, which for a long time has identified the institution and represents its roots,” he said.

The design of the Korean Pavilion itself became the cornerstone of the exhibition this year, presenting how architecture responds to the surrounding environment and is built with respect to nature. The exhibition, “Little Toad, Little Toad: Unbuilding Pavilion,” was shown at the 19th International Architecture Exhibition at the Venice Biennale and opened to the public on May 10.

“Rather than thinking of the pavilion as a white cube, we approached it as a living, layered entity," said Chung Dah-young, co-curator of the exhibition. “We included the surrounding trees (as part of the exhibition), whose presence significantly sharpened the pavilion design. Inside, we displayed installations on the rooftop and the underground level along with the site map that shows its relationship to the nature of the landscape.”

Kimm Jong-soung, president emeritus of Seoul Architects and commissioner of the Korean Pavilion in 2002, expressed admiration of Mancuso and gratitude to fellow Korean architects and curators.

“Their creative efforts (for the newly opened exhibition this year) were trained on an analysis of what comes down today, toward the deconstruction of elements that constitute an ensemble and, finally, toward a creative vision of what the Korean Pavilion can hope to be in the decades ahead,” he said.

Architect Cho Min-suk, who received the Golden Lion award in 2014 for curating the Korean Pavilion theme, “Crow’s Eye View: The Korean Peninsula,” talked about his project. In particular, he focused on how he expanded his discourse to include North Korea by questioning why the Korean Pavilion was named “Corea,” not South Korea.

"Rem Koolhaas (who helmed the Biennale as curator) announced the theme 'Fundamentals," which attempted to — instead of being dedicated to the celebration of the contemporary — look at history and reconstruct how architecture finds itself in its current situation and speculate on its future," Cho said.

"It has been a real privilege to be part of this momentum, and I am quite excited to see what is coming for the future," he added.

Marco Mulazzani, a professor at University of Ferrara, gave a presentation with the theme of "Permanence in Change: The Giardini of the Venice Biennale from 1887." Rinio Bruttomesso, a former professor at Iuav University of Venice, shared his memories of the late Korean architect Kim Seok-chul, the co-architect of Korean Pavilion.

The forum, with an audience of some 130, was moderated by Choi Choon, professor of the department of architecture and architectural engineering at Seoul National University.

“(The forum) serves not only as a reflection of the past journey, but also as a launching point toward a greater future,” said Song Si-kyeong, director of the general secretariat of Arts Council Korea.