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.
2022 Charles Avery
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관리자 2022-12-16 14:03
Untitled (Eel Seller), 2022, Acrylic and watercolor on linen, 105×83cm. Courtesy of the artist and Vistamare.
Untitled (Two Cyclists Beneath the Porticos of the City Wall), 2021, Pencil, acrylic and ink on paper mounted on linen, 247×182cm. Courtesy of the artist and GRIMM.
Untitled (Eel Fishing Beneath the Bridge (Era of the Pentagon)), 2021, Pencil, acrylic and ink on paper mounted on canvas, 280×460cm. Courtesy of the artist and GRIMM.
Untitled (City Wall Market Scene), 2020, Pencil, acrylic, ink and watercolor on paper, 248.8×368cm. Courtesy of the artist and GRIMM.
Untitled (Hanging Ray Pentangle), 2020, Hand-blown glass, iron, Dimension variable. In collaboration with Studio Marc Barreda. Courtesy of the artist and GRIMM.
Untitled (Market Stand #6), 2020, Hand-blown glass in various containers, Dimension variable. In collaboration with Studio Marc Barreda. Courtesy of the artist and GRIMM.
Untitled (Gatherers and Water Carriers Tending Crops), 2019, Pencil, acrylic, watercolor and ink on paper, 169.3×256.5cm. Courtesy of the artist and GRIMM.
Untitled (Study with Girl and Bike), 2014, Pencil, ink, acrylic and gouache on paper, 124×95cm. Courtesy of the artist and GRIMM.
Untitled (Dilettantes Eel Hunting in the Memory of Consciousness), 2014, Pencil, ink and acrylic on paper, 133×178cm. Courtesy of the artist and GRIMM.
Untitled (L’Escargot Quadrato), 2013, Cardboard, bronze, nickel plated brass, acrylic paint, acrylic rod, gouache, L.E.D, 70×49×40cm. Courtesy of the artist and GRIMM.
Since 2005, Charles Avery has been building an imaginary island with the drawings, sculptures, and writings of his series The Islanders. Avery’s singular vision of the island, its inhabitants is shaped by his own childhood experiences growing up in Isle of Mull on the west coast of Scotland. He describes his hypothetical island as an infinite place, without scale or boundaries, and as a gymnasium for the imagination.
The island is centred around the port city of Onomatopoeia, which was established by the first pioneers before progressing through the familiar cycle of urban growth and transformation: colonial rule, early development, a bustling metropolis, recession, and finally, revitalization as a cultural and tourist destination. Through his drawings, Avery not only provides snapshots of daily life on the island (such as fishing for eels, one of the islanders’ staple foods), but also conveys the island’s social structure, culture, customs, nature, inhabitants, architecture, geometry, and life forms. While the drawings serve as a type of documentation, the sculptures function more like artifacts or remains from the places depicted in the drawings, thus becoming tangible links between the imaginary territory and the objective space of the world.
b. 1973, Oban, UK
Lives and works in London and on the Isle of Mull, UK
Since 2004, Charles Avery has been producing The Islanders, a series set in the imaginary island village of “Onomatopoeia.” Working in genres ranging from detailed drawings to sculpture, installation, and text, he presents a fictional worldview that expands through its close connections not only with actual social structures and cultures but also with various academic fields including anthropology, economics, architecture, philosophy, mathematics, science, literature, and theater. Avery depicts the people of Onomatopoeia in everyday situations, using a style that cannot be classified under any particular categories of era or culture; in the process, he presents a world that is anti-historical and anti-political, raising questions about globalization and utopianism. In addition to solo exhibitions such as The Hunter returns / goes away from (Grimm Gallery, Amsterdam, 2022), a wall, a bridge, an arch, a hat, a side-show, a square circle, a group of friends, and two one-armed snakes (Grimm Gallery, New York, 2021) and What’s the Matter with Idealism? (GEM Museum of Contemporary Art, The Hague, 2015), he has taken part in Paradys as the part of the 1st edition of Arcadia (Oranjewoud, 2022), Planet B. Climate Change and the New Sublime(Palazzo Bollani, Venice, 2022), Art is the Antidote (Musuem Voorlinden, Wassenaar, 2022), the 16th Istanbul Biennial (2019), the 57th Venice Biennale (2017), and the 9th Taipei Biennial (2014), and in 2007, Avery represented the Scottish Pavilion of the 52nd Venice Biennale.