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.
Port Opening (Park Hwalsung)
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관리자 2022-12-19 10:33
Workroom Press Editor
Busan was the first part of Joseon to be opened to the outside world in the wake of the Korea-Japan Treaty of 1876 (also known as the Treaty of Ganghwa Island). Wonsan and Incheon would subsequently open up as well, launching Joseon into a full-fledged enlightenment period. The first foreigners to arrive were Japanese, centering mainly on the Choryang Waegwan area, which was where Joseon-Korea trade took place at the time. Afterward, Joseon would sign trade treaties with Qing China in 1882 and Great Britain in 1883. The ships arriving in Busan came not only from those countries but also from the US, Russia, Germany, and France. Brought with them were items such as watches, phonographs, cameras, and matches—known collectively as bangnaepum, which literally means “items arriving with ships.” These products of Western culture transformed the lives and perceptions of Busan’s people. In the history of Busan’s growth to become an international port during the Japanese occupation, this opening process became more than just the product of unequal treaties resulting from external pressure; it represented the first example of Korea becoming linked to the rest of the world in the present-day sense. When Busandaegyo Bridge was opened in 1976 to commemorate the centennial of the port’s opening, its location was the wharf of the onetime Choryang Waegwan.