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.
Contemporary Art Exhibition
First, the Contemporary Art Exhibition had 92 artworks from 38 countries under the theme of ‘Chasm-N.E.T.', composed of three exhibition sections :「Point of Contact」,「Hang in there, My dear Geum-sun」and「Moving Picture Desire」. These three sections were organically connected with the main theme 'Chasm' but they were also independent of the main theme.
Outline
- PeriodAug. 21~Oct. 31, 2004
- VenuesBusan Museum of Modern Art, Busan Yachting Center, etc.
- ThemeChasm-N.E.T.
- Artworks92 works from 38 countries
Theme : Chasm-N.E.T.
The theme for the Contemporary Art Exhibition, N.E.T., is proposed to dilute any negative implication “chasm” might carry. In the context of this exhibition, N.E.T. should be understood as an acronym consisting of sub-concepts that are applied to the three sections of the exhibition emphasizing its inter-related structure. For example, to build a ‘Nexus’ between the different aims of the three sections of the exhibition, an ‘Encounter’ between the two curators' ideas is required. For this purpose, they need to ‘Travel’ into one another's consciousness. Furthermore, to proceed ‘Negotiation’ between exhibition organizers and participating artists must take place. N.E.T. requests an understanding of each others’ ‘Environment’ and an adventure to ‘Transit’ between each others’ mental territory. Thu, the notion of ‘Nexus/Encounter/Traveling, Negotiation/Environment/Transit,’ that compose N.E.T., is not only a conceptual proposition that the Busan Biennale 2004 Contemporary Art Exhibition aspires to achieve but also implies the exhibit itself. Moreover N.E.T. is the keyword that allows us multiple interpretations of the exhibit concepts when combined with the exhibition’s three sub-sections : 'Point of Contact', 'Hang in There, My dear Geum-sun', 'Moving Picture Desire'.
Point of Contact : The title of a section co-curated by the Tae Man Choi and Manu D. Park refers to both a spatial and temporal realm where diverse cultural discourses and artists - in nomadic flow - will come together and disperse again.This section extenuates the idea that the Biennale is a place where nomadically flowing people and information are interchanged. It is a moment and space for exchange, not a fixed point on a coordinate system but both a place and a time in which flexible and free movements intersect.
Hang in There, My dear Guem-sun : Curated by Tae Man Choi, derives its title from a popular Korean song released at the height of Korean War. The song is about a refugee who after traveling all the way to Busan from his home in what is now North Korea, longs for his family and his sister ‘Geum-sun’ who were left behind. This section will be a space to visually experience artists’ ideas regarding the history and reality of socio-political trauma emphasising the geographical and geopolitical significance of Busan. It will purport to show that trauma is not only a source of pain but also a motivation for new life.
Moving Picture Desire : Curated by Manu D. Park will portray works of contemporary artists who deal with various differences, gaps, conflicts, tensions and clashes that may arise in encounters between contemporary art, film and spectators’ cultures.‘Artist movies’ whose themes deal with spatial chasm, disconnection between past, present and future or strained love-relationships between man and woman, and so called ‘screen-based art’ that reconstructs or critically appropriates all film elements will be presented.
Sea Art Festival
The Sea Art Festival exhibited 34 works from 11 countries. It took place in various places like Haeundae Beach, Haeundae train station, Haewoljeong on Moon-Greeting Hill, the rabbit warrens in Dongbaek Island, the rooftop of the seashore public service center, etc. The exhibition theme of the Sea Art Festival was ‘Chasm-Crossing Over'. Different cultures like high culture and low culture, elite culture and public culture, continental culture and coastal culture overcome the 'chasms' among them through the act of 'Crossing Over', giving birth to new artistic vitality, eliciting positive response and sympathy from the public.
Outline
- PeriodOct. 9∼Oct. 31, 2004
- VenuesHaeundae Beach, etc.
- ThemeChasm-Crossing Over
- Artworks34 works from 11 countries (9 Invited works, 18 Competition works, 7 Performances)
Theme : Chasm-Crossing Over
There have been so many 'chasm' in our consciousness, culture and space while we have repeated conflict and harmony resulted from the experience with other cultures voluntarily or with another intention in our history. There are one side and the other between the chasm, and the difference of them is confirmed by 'crossing over' from here to there in the end. At the time, new thing different from the old one is come birth after crossing over. New culture may be originated from the chasm between the existing culture and the current, and also culture may be new and abundant by crossing over from one culture to the other. Culture and art in the 21st century could recover the closing and limit of modernism by crossing over. The Subsidiary theme of the Busan Sculpture Project and the Sea Art Festival, 'Crossing Over' has a meaning of positive activity in order to produce a new culture of Busan, either bringing to the attention of 'chasm' among the cultures and reviving affirmatively the meaning of 'chasm'
Busan Sculpture Project
The Busan Sculpture Project aims to create a beautiful sculpture city, Busan. From May 22 to August 29, 20 stone, metal and bronze works from 10 countries were exhibited, drawing 290,000 visitors. The exhibition theme was the same as that of the Sea Art Festival, 'Chasm-Crossing Over'. The works were human-friendly and environment-friendly, emphasizing interactiveness and figurativeness and allowing visitors to experience the works in person. The Eulsukdo Sculpture Park where the works have been installed provides a comfortable resting area to people from all walks of life. It has also emerged as a new tourist landmark for visitors from home and abroad.
Outline
- PeriodMay. 22 ~ Aug. 29, 2004
- VenuesEulsukdo Sculpture Park
- ThemeChasm-Crossing Over
- Artworks20 works from 10 countries