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.
2014 Heaven’s Gate, Reconciliation
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관리자 2014-09-16 17:09
2014
Video Installation, Performance
Variable Size
Heaven’s Gate, Reconciliation
To Korean Japanese who have been subject to discrimination and poverty in Japan since the 1950s, North Korea was considered a 'heaven on earth'. The place where many Korean Japanese who dreamt of paradise in the 1950s headed to was not a heaven on earth, and the 'heaven's gate' was actually 'hell's gate'. According to the testimony of a homecomer in Tessa Morris-Suzuki's "Exodus to North Korea", most of the people were killed or sent to camps and lived a miserable life. The ending of the return-home business which started in December, 1959 and finished in 1984 sent a total of over 90,000 Korean Japanese to North Korea on Mangyongbong. In 1959, there were about 600,000 Korean Japanese. Most of the 600,000 Korean Japanese, 97% of them were from the Southern half of Korea which now belongs to South Korea. To Korean Japanese, North Korea was their 'fatherland' but not actually where most of them were born. Through 'Heaven's Gate: Reconciliation' project, the artist who is a 3rd generation Korean Japanese born to a Korean family living in Japan with North Korean nationality tells his story of meeting North Korean defectors who were 'repatriated by the North' living in Korea and Japan along with metaphorical performances and installation art.