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.
KWON Yongju
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관리자 2020-09-05 15:13
Born 1977 in Daegu, South Korea
Lives in Seoul
KWON Yongju, Waterfall, 2020, Tarpaulin, covering, styrofoam, rubber bar, automatic bar, scaffolding, water pump, wood and others, 976×731.8×418cm
KWON Yongju observes individuals’ lives microscopically andsculpts them out to the material world, the reality. He uses everyday objects in the process, whichto him are byproducts or fragments that seem to be meaningless or worthless, residing both inside and outside of the visible world, the life. The artist collects and assembles these fragments—which might even look like junk—and creates a certain form with the collected items. Going through this process, the objects lose their original position, context and purpose, and reveala particular layer of this society. He calls these sculptures “sub-landscapes” which create another level of realism, generated by the traces of vulnerable individuals. For example, in Buoy Light (2010), a microscopic aesthetic permeated by everyday life and reality is achieved by creating an ascending structure composed of PVC fabric, wrapping material, abandoned furniture, paint bucket, etc., in a wobbly form. In another work, Waterfall-The Structure of Living (2011-2013), the artist creates a dynamic by letting water circulate over the structure so as to present such energy.
In recent works, KWON presents such objects in a more solid and united form by casting its random configuration as a whole. Aesthetic collision and reconciliation comes from the combination of different objects’ nature, color, shape, and initial purpose. The off-white surface of plaster coordinates with its surroundings exquisitely and makes it possible to present a form of a sculpture with more elaborate and acute presence. The structures created by combining and grouping the objects generate the dynamism and energy of individuals turning into a mass. This structure becomes a socio-cultural-political landscape, a visualization of a condition formedby each individual who supports the society and the group of the individuals who make up the society.