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.
Charles LIM Yi Yong
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관리자 2020-09-05 16:06
Born 1973 in Singapore
Lives in Singapore
Charles LIM Yi Yong, SEA STATE 8: Polymath, 2014, Single channel video, color, sound, 64min 44sec
Since the days of Christopher Columbus, the West embarked on a series of expansions and discoveries that effectively began the Age of Imperialism. Hence the sea subsequently became the main route for the colonialist invasions, a new domain that western powers sought to pioneer in order to realize their ambitions of territorial expansion and project political and economic influence over rival states. Imperialist hegemony powered by such development of maritime routes thus accelerated the modernization of western powers, and soon continued as the expansion into the New World. The modernity arising from this era thus expanded from western territories into alien lands, manifesting and even enforcing itself upon the conquered. Such trends rendered the sea a venue of modern violence and territorial expansion, and no longer the subject of awe or veneration.
Needless to say, the sea not only serves as the physical and geographic borders between countries but also the psychological and virtual boundaries. Once active as a yacht racer representing his country, Charles LIM Yi Yong offers a unique perspective on the maritime environment that cannot be found among other artists. Based on his personal experience, LIM focuses on the present state of urban development in his home nation and poses questions about the boundary between land and the sea in terms of the geopolitical implications. By examining the complex relationship between the island city state of Singapore and the sea, LIM presents a reminder of the national anxiety that his country faces as a small nation in the era of globalization in SEA STATE.