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 Restructure-Busan
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관리자 2009-08-28 11:49
Harumi Yukutake generates her abundant creativity by drawing the material into her inner self while fully utilizing her hands, eyes, and body. This inevitably leads to the birth of extremely tactile and unique objects with a glass skin.
ⓒYoriko Mizuta _ Deputy Director, Hokkaido Asahikawa Museum of Art
Harumi Yukutake began exploring conflicts of form, concept, and nature in her artwork, Restructure, created for the Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennial 2006. After walking along a narrow path surrounded by grass on both sides, we come to a house covered with thousands of round mirrors. The house merges with its surroundings, making the border between reality and unreality unclear. Each mirror has a different shape, because the artist cut each one by hand. The mirrors reflect nature, and the image of nature flickers when the soft wind moves the mirrors. The conflict between contrasting concepts, such as reality and unreality, light and shadow, and stillness and motion, creates a new dimension. This work allows us to interact with materials and nature which vary continuously.
Yukutake continues her artistic line of inquiry with her artwork for the 2008 Busan Biennale Sculpture Project, Restructure- Busan. The artist creates a space in Busan? APEC Naru Park where mirrors reflect both nature and the man-made. Spectators are free to use the public art space created by the artist for rest and introspection amid the dichotomy of conceptual, visual and spatial dimensions Yukutake has set up near the Central Plaza of the park.
Edited by Hyungtak Jung _ Independent Curator