Political Economy of Local Cultural Contents: A Critical Research on the Gwangju Biennale as a Local Cultural Industry

Contrary to the spirit and values that the Gwangju Biennale initially planned to pursue, some controversies have continued from its inception to the present. Hence, this essay examined the political, economic, and social contexts underlying the issues comprehensively. Especially, the purpose of this essay was to analyze the characteristics of the Gwangju Biennale from its launch to the present, focusing on some issues, political and economic tensions, national and local power relations surrounding the Gwangju Biennale as a prominent cultural industry. First of all, in the early stage of the establishment of the Biennale Foundation, almost all pertinent local policy makers were from Honam regions, and this was the main reason for a conflictual relationship with artists and cultural planners, and also showing authoritarian elitism and exclusivity. Second, since the 2000s, the foundation has made changes such as planning projects to harmonize with local residents to accept the criticism raised earlier, but it could be seen that the Biennale is losing its values and agenda due to a lot of pressure from both inside and outside. Third, as an alternative, the Biennale showed efforts to achieve economic independence, but it was operated through the sponsorship of local companies and capitalists, revealing a lack of public nature of the foundation. Lastly, the Gwangju Biennale attempted to utilize and expand city's locality as a cultural hub city and plan a series of industries specialized in local characteristics, but another criticism was raised since there were still problems and conflicts, relating such issues as, corruption and labor management within the foundation.