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.
Yeongdo (Eunchae Cho)
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관리자 2022-12-19 10:57
Busan Biennale 2022 Exhibition Team
Yeongdo is an island located on Busan’s southern coast. In addition, it has been referred to as “Mokdo” (“pasture island”) because it was considered a good environment for raising horses. Another name that was used, “Jeoryeongdo,” roughly translates to mean that when horses raised on the island raced along, even their shadows appeared to break apart. The first use of the shorter name “Yeongdo,” meaning “shadow island,” came when administrative units were reorganized after Korea’s liberation.
With its designation as South Korea’s provisional capital during the Korean War, Busan was crowded with refugees and members of divided families. Yeongdo Bridge, which was opened in 1934, was the place where these people pledged to reunite. Because of all the people gathering near the bridge seeking news about their families, fortune tellers also began setting up shops in the area. Jeju residents traveling to the mainland to escape the violence of Jeju on April 3 also settled mainly around Yeongdo, further adding to the high percentage of the population from outside Busan. Later demolished for safety reasons, Yeongdo Bridge was reopened in 2013, but whereas in the past it had been a central location for migrants, this time it led to eviction orders being issued against tenants in the area. Yeongdo was also the site where Korea’s first modern shipyard was built, and the shipbuilding industry would go on to serve as a driver for the local economy. Mass layoffs of workers objecting to the overseas relocation of shipyards, however, led to high-wire protests at Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction, along with the “Hope Bus” campaign for the workers’ reinstatement. As this shows, migration and labor have been inextricable parts of Yeongdo’s history, and those migrants and workers have sometimes been overshadowed in the name of “development.”