Deniz Aktaş, Naz Cuguoğlu

15th Gwangju Biennale | South Korea

SAHA supports Deniz Aktaş’s new project at 15th Gwangju Biennale between 7 September – 1 December 2024, Curated by the biennial’s artistic director Nicolas Bourriaud, curators Barbara Lagié, Kuralai Abdukhalikova, Sophia Park,and assistant curators Jade Barget, Euna Lee. SAHA also supports Naz Cuguoğlu, co-curator of the American Pavilion with Abby Chen. For its 30th anniversary, the 15th Gwangju Biennale gathers 72 artists from 30 countries; PANSORI: A Soundscape of the 21st Century is an attempt to map the complexity of the contemporary world.

PANSORI: A Soundscape of the 21st Century is an operatic exhibition about the space we inhabit, from our housing to the human occupation of the planet. And as landscapes are also soundscapes, the exhibition is built as a narrative connecting musical and visual forms. Dating back to the 17th century, PANSORI is a Korean musical genre anchored in its native territory, a symbol of the relationships between sound and space. In Korean, pansori literally means "the noise from the public place," which might also be translated as the voice of the subalterns. 

Deniz Aktaş (1987, Diyarbakır) lives and works in Istanbul and Diyarbakır. He completed his BFA in painting in Marmara University and MFA in Yeditepe University in Istanbul. In his drawings, Aktaş delves into urban memory traumas through carefully depicted images that bear the marks of urban transformation, forced evictions, demolishment and traces of social conflict. Aktaş participated in the Cité Internationale des Arts artist residency programme in Paris (2016), ARTER Research Programme in Istanbul (2020) and the Urbane Künste Ruhr & Macroscope artist residency programme in Mülheim an der Ruhr, Germany (2022). Selected solo and group exhibitions include Abstractions, Intimations, Ruminations, Curator: Duygu Demir, İMALAT-HANE, Bursa (2023); Within the Shadows of Time, Odapark Center for Contemporary Art, Limburg (2023); Symbiosis, duo with Metin Çelik, Makro-Scope and Museum für Fotokopie (2022); 76 Fragments of a Chronology of Chance, Curator: Duygu Demir, (solo) .artSümer, Istanbul (2022); This Place, Curator: Kevser Güler, Yapı Kredi Culture & Arts, Istanbul (2021).

Naz Cuguoğlu is the Assistant Curator of Contemporary Art & Programs at the Asian Art Museum. Originally from Istanbul, she has curated exhibitions and programs internationally at documenta fifteen, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, the Walters Art Museum, and the 15th Istanbul Biennial, and locally at the Wattis Institute, Berkeley Art Center, Headlands Center for the Arts, and Slash Art. She previously held positions at KADIST, the de Young Museum, and SFMOMA. She delivered lectures and participated in panel discussions at institutions including Tate Modern, Rhode Island School of Design, SALT, and UC Berkeley. She edited and contributed to numerous exhibition catalogs by publishers such as Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Archive Books, and Marsilio Editori; her writings were featured in SFMOMA Open Space, Art Asia Pacific, Hyperallergic, and Nka: Journal of Contemporary African Art. She has also held positions on multiple juries and advisory panels both internationally and in the Bay Area. She received her MA in Curatorial Practice from California College of the Arts, San Francisco, and holds degrees in Psychology (BA) and Social Psychology (MA) with Honors from Koç University, Istanbul.

About Gwangju Biennale

The Gwangju Biennale was founded in 1995 and is the largest and oldest biennale in Asia. Established to commemorate the Gwangju Democratization Movement and its brutal suppression in 1980, the biennale is dedicated to creating dialogues between artistic visions from around the world, shedding light on practices that have been overlooked in the past, while honouring the challenges inscribed within the city’s fabric. The Gwangju Biennale Foundation is a non-profit initiative for contemporary discourse and culture relying on local and international public and private funding.