It is a truth universally acknowledged that a curator in charge of a global art roundup must be in want of a theme. Nicolas Bourriaud, artistic director of the 15th Gwangju Biennale has come up with a fanciful one: “Pansori: A Soundscape of the 21st Century.” The key term is the name of a highly narrative Korean vocal genre that involves a wailing, dramatically gesturing singer accompanied by one drum— just like 21st-century life, right? Pan means a gathering place, while sori is a type of sound or singing. The combination, usually rendered as “noise from a public place,” Bourriaud somehow translated as “voice of the subalterns,” as though the 17th-century tunes, preserving shamanistic tales from Korea’s imperial Joseon dynasty, had been composed last week for the art world’s liberatory present. Even if Bourriaud were a true fan of pansori—which often goes on for five to eight hours at a stretch in archaic Korean— the choice is clearly patronizing.