The 15th Gwangju Biennale opens this Saturday, September 7, in South Korea. Alex Červený presents a set of six paintings in the exhibition, among which is Boat People, specially commissioned for the show.

The term that gives title to this oil on canvas refers to the thousands of refugees who fled Vietnam after the war in the 1970s. Alongside an attempt to represent forced displacements, the painting incorporates literary and historical references associated with the sea as a place of waiting, exile, and danger. The artist calligraphed on the canvas the list of books from Homer's Odyssey the list of chapters from Moby Dick, and the epic poem O Navio Negreiro by Castro Alves, which describes the colonial tragedy of human trafficking from Africa to America. Also included are other lists, such as shipwrecking dates, names of pirates, and the countless Vietnamese restaurants scattered throughout Canada, a country which welcomed a large influx of war refugees.

Under artistic direction of Nicolas Bourriaud, this Biennale is entitled PANSORI: a Soundscape of the 21st Century and presents a narrative that connects musical and visual forms, while investigating habitats and human occupation on the planet.