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.
LIU Wa
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관리자 2020-09-05 16:04
Born 1994 in Beijing, China
Lives in New York, USA, and Beijing
LIU Wa, Devil's Ivy, 2020, Watercolor on paper, 26 × 36 cm (30)
LIU Wa works with drawings, paintings and video, and for the last few years, she has turned her drawings into a virtual reality work. Devil’s Ivy (2020) is a video essay that examines the distorted lines between reality and fiction, truth and fake news, amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. It sends the viewer on a surreal trip to the city of Wuhan under its lockdown, onto the virus infected cruise ship The Diamond Princess, and the mass grave on Hart Island in the north eastern side of New York City. As the invisible virus morphs into bizarre symbolic elements, it exposes issues embedded in society from long before the contagion, such as public surveillance and social distrust. Devil’s Ivy is a response to the bias, contradictory narratives, and conspiracy theories that floated through internet during the spring of 2020. The work’s title is inspired by a commonplace vine named Devil’s Ivy — a plant that is (almost) impossible to exterminate and stays green even in the dark.
Racing Thoughts (2019) is a two-channel video installation, also based on LIU Wa’s drawings. The work traces the artist’s discursive internet surfing by juxtaposing both clinical and humanistic approaches to emotions.