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 Dogon (Dogon Man), Dogone(Dogon Woman)
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관리자 2013-03-25 09:50
Dogon (Dogon Man), Dogone(Dogon Woman)
WATER CARGO & PETROL CARGO
Hazoumé, an artist from Bénin (West Africa), works with the materiality and texture of objects that play a role in people’s daily lives.By touching and transforming these objects, he infuses them with spiritual and political significance.For his installation in “Garden of Learning”, Hazoumé procured two motor scooters, both the kind people in his home country build specially for the purpose of smuggling petrol from Nigeria to Togo. With almost no legroom for the driver, this black market trade counts many disabled people among its protagonists.The fuel tank capacity has been pushed to a maximum so that drivers can pass from border to border without stopping, and the multiple tank caps made of shoe soles are direly needed if the annealing machineis to stay ventilated.
These highly improvised and sophisticated technical alterations turn the scooter into something of an animated object: a kind of monstrous insect with a rusty metal shield, to which the artist has added wing-like extensions on both sides.Balancing on these wings are either balance glass bottles – such as the ones used to sell petrol in Bénin – or the black plastic bags used to scoop water for drinking. Thus, the liquid that fuels our modern lives is equated with the liquid that fuels all life.The installation is completed by two panoramic shots of street scenes and markets in Bénin.