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 Busan 2020
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관리자 2009-08-28 10:57
… Ho seems to raise the question: how is it possible to reverse the time? That is, how can we see the present from a standpoint of the future (instead of seeing the present and the future from the perspective of the past)? I think the answer would be the universality of truth. As we saw above, a valid truth is universal, valid for anyone, anytime, and anywhere. By accurately defining the concept of an object and its criteria, we can step beyond the time; for the truth accuracy sweeps away the errors of the past and grounds the future instances that will come true (for example, Copernican system). A truth is timeless, and the order of the time gets reversed via the path of timelessness. However, Ho approaches the question from an emotional point of view: "This question captures the subjunctive mood that laces any consideration of time. More than mere chronology (the straightforward linear movement from past to future), time often concerns emotional registers such as anticipation, aspiration, desire, nostalgia, and regret."
Busan 2020 is built in five Circles obviously derived from the symbolic five rings. Indigenous flora is planted around the sculpture to indicate the passing time?or the past from a future point of view in which the 2020 Olympic already would have happened. If we can imagine the possibility to see the present from a future point of view, why not to see the future from another further point of the future? If the city Busan wins its bid, so envisions the artist, Busan 2020 could be used as the podium thereby its aesthetic value transforms into a use value; if not, the podium that would have been a "monument" will become a "memorial of past aspirations." Meanwhile, Busan 2020 is "a model for the future" playfully proposing to set a direction of the present into the future, resonating the "attitude of avant-gardes."
ⓒHeng-Gil Han _ Curator of Visual Arts, Jamaica Art Center, NY