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.
- Contents The ‘Sea chanty project’ is unveiled on our website on May
12th (Thu). The project commissions the production of a music video in collaboration with a media artist and
musicians to arrange traditional sea chanty. Sea chanties, partly accepted as expressions of the sound waves
and rhythm of the sea waves, imply the labor on the boat or migration, carrying social and historical
undertones. In this context, sea chanties strongly resonate with the central themes of the Busan Biennale
2022, such as “migration” and “labor and women.”
Park Minhee, Song Min Jung, and Joyul reinterpret the history of migration and labor conveyed in the traditional songs of 𝘩𝘢𝘦𝘯𝘺𝘦𝘰, the women sea divers. These women used to sing or chant these songs on their way to the inland from Jeju Island. The journey of haenyeo in the songs opens up the borderless world by continuing from the ocean, the islands, coastal cities, and exotic lands until arriving at the hinterland.
Swelling Wind Waves proposes that the viewers scroll down the PC or mobile screen as they follow the journey of 𝘩𝘢𝘦𝘯𝘺𝘦𝘰. Let us use Ganeum, their way of locating themselves while on water, and Heotsum, the skills of detecting the maritime gardens, for this project suggests we paddle with them in this ever-changing space-time, moving up and down the sea to reach Yeongdo Island in Busan safely.