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The South Korean pavilion at the Venice Biennale

Korean art is at risk of suffering international humiliation in Venice, Italy, a nexus of art history. Just one month before the 2017 Venice Biennale of Architecture (an international art fair with more than 120 years of tradition) is set to open on May 13, it was revealed that the South Korean national pavilion at the biennale, which was opened by the South Korean government in 1995, is actually an illegal building lacking a permit from the local authorities. This has set off alarm bells at the Arts Council Korea (ARKO), which has been organizing the South Korean pavilion.

The South Korean pavilion, which was designed by the late architect Kim Seok-chul (1943-2016), is located in the southeast corner of a cluster of national pavilions at Venice‘s Castello Park, which is a World Heritage Site. This single-story steel-framed building, with a total floor space of 900 square meters, is divided into three exhibition areas. The pavilion consists of a rectangular building (originally a restroom) that is attached to a circular exhibition hall with transparent windows. Thanks to the efforts of renowned video artist Nam June Paik (1931-2006) and the South Korean government, the building opened its doors as the 26th national pavilion in the park in 1995, and as of 2015, it had hosted 11 exhibitions in the field of art alone. It is widely held in the field of culture in South Korea that the pavilion is the country’s flagship art gallery.

ARKO says that it did not learn that the South Korean pavilion was an illegal building until the end of March. Cody Choi, the artist whose work will be presented at the pavilion this year, was reportedly deliberating with Venice city government about receiving a permit to install a piece of art on the roof of the pavilion when he learned that the pavilion was not even officially registered in the city’s building and land records. “Local records state that the South Korean pavilion was a temporary building that was built on borrowed land on the secret condition that it would be torn down in 1998. We have learned that, for reasons that are unclear, no steps were subsequently taken to receive an official license, and the pavilion remains unregistered,” said an ARKO source.

The bizarre thing is that thus far no records have been found about why this kind of secret condition was imposed at the time of construction and why steps were not taken to receive an official permit. “After learning that the pavilion was unregistered, we looked for records related to deliberations about a building permit at the time of construction, but none of those materials have survived. Furthermore, the ARKO officials who were involved with the construction didn’t know anything about this. Since the architect Kim Seok-chul never said before he died that the South Korean pavilion was a temporary building that might be torn down, we’re completely in the dark,” an ARKO source said.

Since the South Korean pavilion is not listed in the building records, Venice city government could issue a demolition order at any time, and there would be no way to block it. ARKO has hastily enlisted a South Korean architect who is working in Venice to carry out negotiations with city government officials to renew the permit. The building has been surveyed again, which is an essential condition for renewing the permit, and work is underway to assemble the documents that are needed for the application. Because the park in which the pavilion is located is a World Heritage Site, which entails strict standards for environmental conservation, and because the bathroom and drains that have been added to the pavilion constitute illegal alterations, the city government is reportedly unlikely to expedite the permit renewal. “We’ve been told that they aren’t planning to ban exhibitions immediately, but it doesn’t seem like we‘ll be able to renew the building permit before the exhibition begins,” ARKO said.

Another obstacle is the structure of the pavilion, which is not well-suited for holding exhibitions. Since the building functions as more of an observatory - being lined by transparent windows and lacking divider walls for exhibitions - the art community has been arguing for more than 10 years that it needs to be remodeled to make it better for holding exhibitions.

Last year, ARKO responded by setting up a team with Franco Mancuso, 80, a professor emeritus at the University of Venice who designed the pavilion along with Kim Seok-chul, and the team has been carrying out a feasibility study on issues including the building’s safety. But given Mancuso‘s advanced age along with the additional challenge of renewing the building permit, the art community thinks that a remodeling plan is unlikely to emerge.

By Noh Hyung-seok, staff reporter

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