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.
Reclaimed Land (Eunchae Cho)
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관리자 2022-12-19 10:36
Busan Biennale 2022 Exhibition Team
Between 1913 and 1938, Japan reclaimed a large area measuring 1,505,884.3 square meters by filling in waters on the coast near the Beomil and Sujeong neighborhoods in Busan’s Dong (East) District, the Jungang neighborhood in its Jung (Central) District, and the Uam neighborhood in its Nam (South) District. The reclaimed land was used for barracks and piers for the transportation of Japanese military items. After the Korean War began, communities were created in the area by refugees descending on Busan. Because there was so little space to accommodate the masses of people pouring in, even stables were divided up for use as homes. During the 1960s, factory workers took up residence in Maechukji Village (a name literally meaning “reclaimed land”), where rents were relatively cheap, and the area became a large residential district with some 30,000 inhabitants. The Beomil area in particular, was home to many students and other young people, thanks to extensive industrial facilities such as Joseon Textile, Dongmyung Timber, and Kukje Rubber. But a strike at Joseon Textile marked the beginning of the end for the “Beomil era” in Busan’s economy. Young people began departing the area, and Maechukji Village entered a state of decline. The area was designated for redevelopment in the 1990s. New apartments were built, and the original residents were effectively forced to relocate. As this story shows, Maechukji Village is an area imbued with a history of migration and settlement spanning the entirety of the city’s modern and contemporary history, including the occupation, the war, and the era of industrial development. Now, however, the “village where time stopped” is threatened with annihilation due to redevelopment.