The Taiwan Pavilion at the 2026 Gwangju Biennale has had its full name reinstated, following a dispute over the Biennale’s listing of the Taiwanese participation under ‘NTMoFA Pavilion’ – named after the acronym of its organising institution, the National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts.
The Gwangju Biennale Foundation contacted the Taiwan Ministry of Culture on Tuesday to confirm the pavilion’s name had been restored, following an ultimatum issued by the Ministry. The Biennale’s documents and promotional materials now identify Taiwan as an exhibitor.
The dispute arose earlier this month when promotional materials of the biennial listed the Taiwanese participation under ‘NTMoFA Pavilion’ instead of the title ‘Taiwan Pavilion’, which the institution filed its application under. A series of statements issued by the pavilion’s 10 artists and curators, by Taiwan’s Ministry of Culture, and in the form of a letter signed by twenty other contributors to the event, called the change an act of ‘political censorship’ and stated an intention to ‘continue to seek participation under the name “Taiwan Pavilion”’.
The organisers of the Gwangju Biennale said they considered the listing an administrative convention, that NTMoFA signed the exhibition agreement as an institutional participant rather than a national one, and that ‘posters and promotional materials use either the country name or the institutional name, according to the type of participant’.
The 2026 Gwangju Biennale, titled You Must Change Your Life and helmed by Ho Tzu Nyen, will run from 5 September to 15 November.
