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.
2008 조각상Ⅱ
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관리자 2009-08-27 16:44
Of particular note is Une Statue, a series of works crafted and honed over an extraordinarily long period. As evidenced by the whipped cream on extended middle finger of Une Statue 1, while exaggerating masculinity to provocative effect, at the same time the works lay bare an unmanliness that seems to acknowledge the battle is lost. In Une Statue 2 the motif is that of hara-kiri, clearly a reference to the suicide of Japanese writer Mishima Yukio. In Une Statue 3 a pair of lips with buttocks are making amorous advances to the heavens. Kato likely takes the appellation "Statue" for these works from the concept described by French philosopher Michel Serres in his book Statues. Le second livre des fondations (1987), in which Serres spoke of the sacrificial victims existing in the background of certain communities from ancient times to the present day as "statues." Taking our hint from this title, when these works are viewed together a narrative of provocation, self-sacrifice and love without reward is revealed. They are also the vestiges of Kato's own battle to overcome a masculinity possessed of a certain unmanliness.