스킵네비게이션

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Amal Khalaf	Evelyn Simons

The Busan Biennale Organizing Committee has appointed Amal Khalaf (UK/ Bahrain) and Evelyn Simons (Belgium) as co-artistic directors of Busan Biennale 2026. Following an open call that ran for approximately one month, and which began in May, the committee selected the female duo through a multi-stage review and deliberation process.

* Renowned International Curators to Lead Busan Biennale 2026

Amal Khalaf and Evelyn Simons, both active on the international art scene, have been chosen as co-artistic directors for the upcoming edition of the Busan Biennale. As a female curatorial duo, they proposed a collaborative plan that enlivens the city by utilizing diverse spaces across Busan, South Korea and interweaves multiple artistic genres.

Amal Khalaf is a curator and program director who has played key roles in major international exhibitions, steadily expanding her influence in the contemporary art world. In 2019, she served as co-curator of the Bahrain Pavilion at the Venice Biennale—one of the most prestigious contemporary art exhibitions globally—and recently participated as a co-curator of Sharjah Biennial 16, which concluded this past June. In addition, she is currently preparing for the opening of Ghost 2568: Wish We Were Here, a video art festival set to open this October in Bangkok, Thailand, where she is serving as the artistic director. Khalaf earned her BA in Moving Image Arts/Communication from the University of Leeds and her MA in Contemporary Art Theory from Goldsmiths, University of London. From 2009 to 2022, she worked as a curator at the Serpentine Galleries, a major contemporary art institution in London. Since 2019, she has also served as the Program Director at Cubitt, a curatorial platform in London, UK.

Evelyn Simons is an independent curator based in Brussels, Belgium. She holds an MA in Art History from the University of Ghent and completed the postgraduate Curatorial Studies program at the School of Arts Ghent. From June to September 2025, she curated These Branching Moments, currently on view at Fotomuseum Antwerp (FOMU). From 2019 to 2023, she served as the artistic director and curator for the visual arts and performance program at Horst Arts & Music, Belgium’s renowned electronic music festival.

* Curating an Exhibition across the Urban Landscape of Busan
Amal Khalaf and Evelyn Simons, the newly appointed co-artistic directors, plan to utilize not only the Busan Museum of Contemporary Art but also a range of symbolically significant urban sites across the city as exhibition venues. Starting from the museum, their curatorial vision unfolds at both indoor and outdoor locations throughout Busan, resonating with themes of resistance, healing, care, and hope, and echoing a collective lament for our times. A defining feature of their proposal is its focus on a multi-arts exhibition that encompasses site-specific installations and visual art alongside time-based performances and music. As artistic directors of Busan Biennale 2026, their concept offers an artistic interpretation of Busan’s identity as a maritime city and its potential as a global cultural hub. Through sensuous and experimental exhibitions rooted in the local context, the duo is expected to open new artistic horizons. Furthermore, their collaborative model invites participation from local artists and diverse cultural actors, generating fresh momentum and interest in the art world.

Joon Lee, Executive Director of the Busan Biennale Organizing Committee remarked, “Their proposal, themed Dissident Chorus, received strong support from the jury for offering five artistic practices that examine the world with a fresh, unique lens —through memory, empathy, healing, resistance, and solidarity, all of which will be mediated by the body, sound, and water.” He went on to add, “Given their emphasis on community engagement and collaborative practices, we will fully support the realization of their vision.”

About Busan Biennale

The Busan Biennale Organizing Committee was first established in 1999 as Busan International Art Festival Organizing Committee and changed its name in 2001 as 'Busan Biennale'. Through staging Busan Biennale every even-numbered year and the Sea Art Festival every odd-numbered year, the organizing committee presents resonating site-specific artworks that are inspired by the identity and local characteristics of the city, striving to promote Korean art and culture to the global audience whilst introducing the canons of international art to local audiences.
Inaugurated in 1981 as Busan Youth Biennale formed by young Korean artists, Busan Biennale has become a leading art biennale in Korea and beyond. The main notions that Busan Biennale conveys are locality, internationality and communicability by reflecting on local lives and culture that feed into the overarching theme of each edition.

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