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 Kim Jigon
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관리자 2022-12-16 16:10
Beyond the Threshold Garden, 2022, Single-channel video, color, sound, 37min. 50sec.
Kim Jigon
b. 1983, Busan, South Korea
Lives in Busan
Working in his home city of Busan, Kim Jigon documents disappearing spaces and histories such as the Hillside Road and double feature movie theaters. Since 2011, he has been releasing work in his documentary series Grandma, which focuses on redevelopment of Busan’s Hillside Road and the elderly women who live there. Turning his camera on the cumulative experiences of people living their lives in marginalized communities, he views their warmth with a gaze that is both tender and objective. Occasionally, members of the film crew step out from behind the camera and blend into the lives of these protagonists. In addition to people, the films also include angles that gaze out over the surrounding spaces—an attempt to embrace the traces of people, things, and spaces as a community in their own right. Kim received the Express Poetic Award at the 13th Brazil International Student Film Festival (Rio de Janeiro, 2008) for his debut Unfamiliar Dreams (2008). He also received runner-up honors at the 13th Independent Film Festival Busan (2011) for Grandma (also 2011), the “Dream of Peace” award at the 10th Busan Peace Film Festival (2019) for Little Boy 12725 (2018), and the Busan Film Critics’ Association Award at the 23rd Independent Film Festival Busan (2021) for The Steel Boat (2021). Since his debut, Kim has defined his own cinematic boundaries in spaces inside and outside the theater, working as a producer for the work of fellow documentarians through his film company Cinema Takju Corp.