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 I Saw the Truths on the Road
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관리자 2018-08-21 11:50
I Saw the Truths on the Road, Performance (Participants: Kang MinSung, Kim Jisang), 1 hour-1 hour 30 min, 2018, Courtesy of the artist, Commissioned by Busan Biennale 2018
JUNG Yunsun
I Saw the Truths on the Road
At this year’s biennale, Jung showcases her performance I Saw the Truth on the Road (2018)*, which adopts the format of a guided tour. The performance takes place on a bus that departs from Busan Station to arrive at the Museum of Contemporary Art Busan and on its journey it touches upon the traces of the Korean War still left in many places in Busan. After being instructed to get on the bus by a guide in a military uniform, audiences can listen to stories that are played on an audio guide. Busan's scenery viewed from the window of the bus overlaps with images of Busan during the Korean War conjured up by the audio. The bus passes where refugees temporarily stayed during the war and locations related to the tragic ‘Bodo League massacre’ incident that killed between 100,000 and 200,000 civilians in the name of tracking down communists in the early days of the war. The title of the work was borrowed from an article written at the time by Alan Winnington of The Daily Worker, published in London, UK. The carefully organized bus journey reveals an undiscovered tragedy of the past, illuminating a piece of history that has been in the dark for a long time and allowing time to remember those whose human rights were ignored and who were helplessly sacrificed by the power of ideology. *I Saw the Truth on the Road will be performed six times in total, at 10am and 2pm on the 8th of September, 11am and 3pm on the 9th of September, and 10th of November. After that date audiences can make their own journey by using the printed guide that can be found on the information desk of Bank of Korea’s Busan headquarters. The guide includes a map of places where the tour bus passes and each place is accompanied by a QR code that audiences can scan to hear the corresponding audio guide.