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Busan Biennale 2022

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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.

Busan-Masan Democratic Uprisings (Cha Seong Hwan)

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관리자 2022-12-16 16:33

Cha Seong Hwan
Research fellow, Institute for Democratic Society
A tank appeared in Gwangbok-dong, Busan.
Photo: Jung Kwangsam (Former Journalist, Busan Ilbo).
Image courtesy of BUMA Democratic Uprisings Memorial Foundation.
 
Busan’s name literally means “cauldron mountain.” Cauldrons are traditionally placed over a flame to boil things. The Busanites living within this cauldron had their own historical experience of boiling over an incident known as the Busan-Masan Democratic Uprisings. At a time when the iron-fisted rule of the Park Chung-hee dictatorship had the entire country feeling terrorized, calls for an end to his Yushin Constitution and cries of “down with dictatorship” began ringing out from Korea’s “southern capital.” This was a period in history where people had to carefully consider who was around them whenever they commented on politics, and the calls truly lit a fire in people’s hearts. They began with students, and soon many more were joining in, from office workers to factory workers, street stall operators, bartenders, drivers, sailors, people studying to retake their college examination, and high school students. The cries resounded ever louder within the city’s vast cauldron. Busan’s city center became a roiling sea of humanity. As the protests boiled over on October 16 and 17, 1979, Park attempted to douse the flames by sending in paratroopers and Marines at midnight on October 18. The people of Busan responded by battling the soldiers with their bare hands. They were unable to repel the armed forces in this way, but still they refused to bow. Over 1,000 citizens were dragged off by police and soldiers to suffer torture and brutalization with cudgels and combat boots. The forces of dictatorship appeared to have won out over the public. But exactly ten days after the uprising erupted, Park met his own grisly end when he was assassinated by a member of his inner circle.
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