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.
2012 N. N, 2012.
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관리자 2013-03-25 09:40
N. N, 2012.
NIRVANA FISH AND DRAWINGS
Stollhans spent months in Busan. He became the “Garden of Learning’s” unofficial artist-in-residence and, more importantly, a tireless ethno-grapher of Korea. His contribution consists of two works: an oversized fish and a series of drawings that capture the visual essence of Korea beyond the aesthetics of information technology.The Nirvana Fish is built from around 75,000 single Oxford Bricks –
the Korean equivalent of Lego. It recalls the legend of a mysterious golden fish that appeared in the mountains near Beomeosa, a Buddhist monastery. The fish was briefly seen swimming around in a pond, but then suddenly vanished.The size of Stollhans’s fish, but also the unusual inscription “back to concrete” indicates that the fish is more than a mere toy. Its concept has to do with the kind of public sculpture that is all-pervasive in Korea: all those “things” (there is hardly a building that is not adorned by a an ornament made from steel, chrome, marble or some other durable material).While these public sculptures provide a considerable source of income for local artists, they are largely ignored by passersby, who do not want to form any kind of emotional bond with them.The Nirvana Fish is something else. It proposes an alternative for public art. Not only is it linked to local myths, it keeps them alive by transferring them into the present. Like the witnesses in Beomeosa a thousand years ago, we are utterly perplexed by the sight of a very strange fish! And yet, the Oxford Bricks make the whole object familiar in material terms. We all know how to build such a thing – but except for the children, we never dreamt of actually doing it.