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.
2018 Missiles Good Bye
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관리자 2018-08-21 10:52
Missiles Good Bye, Archival digital print on canvas, dipped in IKB blue paint, 153 x 102 x 4 cm, 2018
Three Graces, Acrylic on canvas, 122 x 153 x 4 cm, 2014
Lil’ Kim, Acrylic on canvas, 122 x 122 x 4 cm, 2014
Happy North Korean Children, Acrylic on canvas, 122 x 153 x 4 cm, 2015, All courtesy of the artist and Ethan Cohen Gallery
Happy Land Games (1,6,7,11,13,16), Acrylic on canvas, dipped in IKB blue paint, 92 x 61 x 4 cm each, 2017
Umma Mass Games Unification Flag, Archival digital print on canvas, dipped in IKB blue paint, 153 x 102 x 4 cm, 2018
Umma Rises Towards Global Peace, Archival digital print on canvas, dipped in IKB blue paint, 76 x 102 x 4 cm, 2017, All courtesy of the artist and Ethan Cohen Gallery
Umma Professor Kim Art History Lessons , Video art, Approx. 100min, 2017-2018, Courtesy of the artist,
Eat Choco•Pie Together, 100,000 Choco·Pies from Orion, Co. of Korea which the audiences can eat Dimensions variable, 2014 (Ethan Cohen Gallery New York), 2018 (Busan Biennale)
Mina CHEON
Missiles Good Bye
Three Graces
Lil’ Kim
Happy North Korean Children
Happy Land Games (1,6,7,11,13,16)
Umma Mass Games Unification Flag
Umma Rises Towards Global Peace
Umma Professor Kim Art History Lessons
Courtesy of the artist
Eat Choco•Pie Together
In a large collaged painting—photo-printed on canvas and dipped in International Yves Klein Blue—we see Kim Il Soon, wearing traditional Korean female attire, hovering above the lake like a spiritual emanation with arms stretched out and raised, evoking the terminal unity of the as-yet divided country, with waving flags by her side (Umma Rises: Towards Global Peace, 2017). Evoking as well as parodying the visual language of nationalist propaganda imagery, Mina Cheon furthers this positively zanycute aesthetics with the participatory installation Eat Choco Pie—Together, a Pop-Art-style display of the South-Korean confectionary Choco Pie—a sought-after blackmarket item in North Korea—ready for instant consumption by the visitors. If current world politics are alternatingly offering small glimpses of hope (an unexpected rapprochement between North and South Korea) and frightening prospects of deterioration of civic standards(US president Trump cosying up to autocratic leaders like Putin), then Mina Cheon’s scenarios offer a sublime form of comic relief. photo-printed on canvas and dipped in International Yves Klein Blue—we see Kim Il Soon, wearing traditional Korean female attire, hovering above the lake like a spiritual emanation with arms stretched out and raised, evoking the terminal unity of the as-yet divided country, with waving flags by her side (Umma Rises: Towards Global Peace, 2017). Evoking as well as parodying the visual language of nationalist propaganda imagery, Mina Cheon furthers this positively zanycute aesthetics with the participatory installation Eat Choco Pie—Together, a Pop-Art-style display of the South-Korean confectionary Choco Pie—a sought-after blackmarket item in North Korea—ready for instant consumption by the visitors. If current world politics are alternatingly offering small glimpses of hope (an unexpected rapprochement between North and South Korea) and frightening prospects of deterioration of civic standards (US president Trump cosying up to autocratic leaders like Putin), then Mina Cheon’s scenarios offer a sublime form of comic relief.