Busan Biennale
The Busan Biennale is a biannual international contemporary art show that integrated three different art events held in the city in 1998: the Busan Youth Biennale, the first biennale of Korea that was voluntarily organized by local artists in 1981; the Sea Art Festival, an environmental art festival launched in 1987 with the sea serving as a backdrop; and the Busan International Outdoor Sculpture Symposium that was first held in 1991. The biennale was previously called the Pusan International Contemporary Art Festival (PICAF) before it launched.
The biennale has its own unique attribute in that it was formed not out of any political logic or need but rather the pure force of local Busan artists’ will and their voluntary participation. Even to this day their interest in Busan's culture and its experimental nature has been the key foundation for shaping the biennale’s identity.
This biennale is the only one like it in the world that was established through an integration of three types of art events such as a Contemporary Art Exhibition, Sculpture Symposium, and Sea Art Festival. The Sculpture Symposium in particular was deemed to be a successful public art event, the results of which were installed throughout the city and dedicated to revitalizing cultural communication with citizens. The networks formed through the event have assumed a crucial role in introducing and expanding domestic art overseas and leading the development of local culture for globalized cultural communication. Founded 38 years ago, the biennale aims to popularize contemporary art and achieve art in everyday life by providing a platform for interchanging experimental contemporary art.
Shell Mounds (Park Hwalsung)
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관리자 2022-12-19 10:41
Workroom Press Editor
Image courtesy of Cultural Heritage Administration.
The shell mound in Busan’s Dongsam neighborhood is considered one of the most representative of the Neolithic Era on the Korean Peninsula. First discovered by a Japanese elementary school teacher named Oigawa in 1929, the mound was the subject of numerous excavations that continued into the 2000s. A shell mound (midden) is a pile of shells discarded after their contents were consumed by ancient residents. One of their defining characteristics is how the calcified shells turn the soil alkaline so that even organic relics are effectively preserved. Consisting of five separate cultural strata, the Dongsam shell mound has provided a wealth of data offering insights into the lives of residents of the Korean Peninsula over a long period of around two millennia beginning around 6,000 BCE. It includes many relics that have become particularly well known, including a shell mask that is often shown in textbooks. Polished stone tools made with Japanese obsidian show that the interchange between Japan and Busan dates back to ancient times. In other parts of Busan, such as the Haeundae area, Jodo Island, and the neighborhoods of Yeongseon, Dadae, and Amnam, various other relics provide information about the lives of ancient residents over the long period between the Paleolithic Era and the Iron Age.