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 Churchills Dogs
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관리자 2009-08-28 10:57
The work is entitled Churchill? Dogs, taking its name from Britain? war-time leader and references his depression, which he described as his "black dog". The first version of the piece was made it at a time when Margaret Thatcher was in power and as Hunter says "When Britain was coming to terms with a post-colonial reality of reduced power and increasing social problems." This relates to what the artist was seeing on the streets of Edinburgh, where there was a proliferation of attack dogs, such as Rottweilers and Dobermans and other similar breeds. This was in direct contrast to the experience of Hunter? childhood in the mid 1960s to late 1970s, when "more decorative and benign" dog breeds such as Poodles and Afghan hounds where the norm. The artist sees the change in dog breeds in the same way as changes in the style of cars being made or haircuts being worn, as he says, "it indicates other values that are currently at play within society." Hunter read this change in breeds as highlighting a more defensive culture, less communal than it had been previously. He also relates this societal shift to the influence of Margaret Thatcher.
Originally from Edinburgh, Kenny Hunter studied sculpture at Glasgow School of Art, 1983-7.The winner of the EAST Award in 1993 and a recipient of a Creative Scotland Award in 2006; he has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally and has won several prestigious commissions for public sculpture in Scotland. His work in Glasgow includes the Cherub and Skull, Tron Theatre (1999), The Calf, Graham Square (1999), and Citizen Firefighter, Gordon Street (2001). His work is represented in the Scottish Parliament, the British School in Athens, The British Council, SNPG, SNGMA and GOMA.
ⓒCedar Lewisohn _ Programmer, Tate Media