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.
Sanbok Road (Heeyoon Jung)
Read 193
관리자 2022-12-19 10:40
Busan Biennale 2022 Exhibition Team
The Busan road, known as Sanbok Road (Hillside Road), exemplifies the city’s characteristic terrain, with its many hills and narrow flatlands, as well as its history of rampant development by arriving outsiders. When Busan’s port was opened with the Korea-Japan Treaty of 1876, the Japanese began filling in much of the sea around the Jungang neighborhood, turning it into a shoreline. Over the course of the occupation, these portions of land would be developed into Japanese zones. People arriving from throughout Korea in search of work during the occupation had no suitable place to live and were forced to take up residence in unlicensed shantytowns on the steep hillsides. The city’s population swelled after the outbreak of the Korean War when refugees fleeing the chaos packed up their belongings and relocated en masse to what was then South Korea’s provisional capital. Unable to find any legal residential space, the refugees further crowded the hillside shantytowns. Opened in 1964, the winding Sanbok Road connected the various mountain communities. With the development of public transportation came bus routes that traveled up to the hilltops; today, the Sanbok Road connects the hillside areas with the city below, cutting across various different neighborhoods.
Those interested in experiencing the Sanbok Road need only board one of Busan’s city buses. The trip is a rollercoaster ride of steep slopes and sharp curves along the mountain terrain at a high altitude that affords a panorama of the city. The No. 86 bus, in particular, travels over the Sanbok Road en route to Gukje Market and the Nampo neighborhood, offering a glimpse at the marks left on Busan by its past residents.