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.
2012 Japan Syndrome in Yamaguchi
Read 11,646
관리자 2013-03-25 10:16
JAPAN SYNDROME IN YAMAGUCHI
Ever since the nuclear disaster at Fukushima following the Great East Japan Earthquake in March 2011, radiation has been an all-pervasive topic in Japan. Nevertheless, people assume different attitudes when it comes to forces beyond their control and comprehension, and this is especially true in cases of invisible, gradual danger. Fukushima could be repressed (and is therefore bound to return in unexpected ways) or repeatedly evoked (thus causing boredom or even aggression).Takamine asked a group of performers to engage in everyday situations with shopkeepers, clerks and passersby. In a manner that was both casual and decisive, they had to demand information regarding radiation levels, be it in food products or the seawater-filled basin of an aquarium. The rather awkward situations that ensued were then transcribed and reenacted on an almost bare stage in a highly Brechtian manner, and filmed by Takamine.The theatrical qualities of the acting, mixed with deeply ingrained Japanese habits (a rather strange composition of utter politeness, reservation, and obsessive insistence) demonstrate how radiation seeps into culture.