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.
Yun Suknam
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BB2024 2024-11-29 16:40
Portrait of Heroine KIM Myung-si, 2020, colour pigment on Hanji (2), pencil on paper (1), 210x94cm (1), 47x35cm (2).
Portrait of KIM Ok-ryeon, 2020, colour pigment on Hanji (2), pencil on paper (1), 210x94cm (1), 47x35cm (2).
Portrait of LEE Hwa-rim, 2020, colour pigment on Hanji (2), pencil on paper (1), 210x94cm (1), 47x35cm (2).
Portrait of Dong Poong-shin, 2020, colour pigment on Hanji (2), pencil on paper (1), 210x94cm (1), 47x35cm (2).
Portrait of BU Choon-hwa, 2020, colour pigment on Hanji (2), pencil on paper (1), 210x94cm (1), 47x35cm (2).
Portrait of YUN Hee-soon, 2020, colour pigment on Hanji (2), pencil on paper (1), 210x94cm (1), 47x35cm (2).
Portrait of LEE Byung-hee, 2020, colour pigment on Hanji (2), pencil on paper (1), 210x94cm (1), 47x35cm (2).
Portrait of LEE Hee-kyung, 2020, colour pigment on Hanji (2), pencil on paper (1), 210x94cm (1), 47x35cm (2).
Portrait of Kaneko Fumiko, 2021, colour pigment on Hanji (2), pencil on paper (1), 210x94cm (1), 47x35cm (2).
Portrait of CHO Maria, 2021, colour pigment on Hanji (2), pencil on paper (1), 210x94cm (1), 47x35cm (2).
Portrait of SHIN Jeongsook, 2021, colour pigment on Hanji (2), pencil on paper (1), 210x94cm (1), 47x35cm (2).
Portrait of KO Soobok, 2021, colour pigment on Hanji (2), pencil on paper (1), 210x94cm (1), 47x35cm (2).
Portrait of LEE Wol-bong, 2022, colour pigment on Hanji (2), pencil on paper (1), 210x94cm (1), 47x35cm (2).
Portrait of NOH Soon-gyeong, 2022, colour pigment on Hanji (2), pencil on paper (1), 210x94cm (1), 47x35cm (2).
Portrait of CHOI Jeong-sook, 2022, colour pigment on Hanji (2), pencil on paper (1), 210x94cm (1), 47x35cm (2).
Portrait of UH Yoonhee, 2022, colour pigment on Hanji (2), pencil on paper (1), 210x94cm (1), 47x35cm (2).
Portrait of GWON Ae-ra, 2023, colour pigment on Hanji (2), pencil on paper (1), 210x94cm (1), 47x35cm(2).
Portrait of KIM Soon-ae, 2023, colour pigment on Hanji (2), pencil on paper (1), 210x94cm (1), 47x35cm (2).
Portrait of LEE Hyo-jung, 2023, colour pigment on Hanji (2), pencil on paper (1), 210x94cm (1), 47x35cm (2).
Yun Suknam has been fervently exploring women in her life, such as her mother, female workers, and colleagues who pioneered the path of feminism, as well as historical and folklore figures such as Heo Nanseolheon, Kim Man-deok, and Princess Bari. She has expressed them as the subjects of her works in paintings, wood sculptures, and large-scale installations. While Yun had been primarily working with Western painting materials, her encounter with the Self-Portrait (1710) by Yun Du-seo, the renowned painter of the Joseon period, in 2011 became a turning point in switching to learning the techniques of Chaesaekwa (Korean polychrome painting) in 2015. Since then, Yun has been painting portraits using this technique. Women of Resistance Series (2020-2023) is the artist’s long-term project of painting portraits of overlooked women independence activists based on their stories. The works on display in the Biennale are a series of pencil drawings and Chaesaekwa of faces juxtaposed with large-scale full-length portraits, summing up to 57 portraits of women independence activists. The history of women independence activists is less known than that of male activists, and due to the intense circumstances of the time, their stories are poorly documented. The artist embraced this situation by drawing her inspiration from reading related texts and using her imagination rather than painting figures based on archival sources. The objects, background, and clothing in the portraits are applied as symbolic objects that hint at the person’s achievements and actions. Yun’s trajectory, which includes her expansion to spatial installation from the stuffy canvas and the sense of freedom she achieved from the blank paper she paints, interestingly overlaps with the intense fighting spirit of women independence fighters for liberation.
Yun Suknam
