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.
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관리자 2018-08-21 11:54
Black Transparency, Single channel video, 14min, 2013, Courtesy of the artists
METAHAVEN
Black Transparency
Presented in the Busan Biennale, Metahaven’s video Black Transparency (2013) is one of two recent video works—the other being The Sprawl: Propaganda about Propaganda (2016)—that deliver impulsive reflection and analysis. In layout, the work mimics the classic format of cable news television. But although we see the framing and graphics characteristic of this format, the motifs and patterns therein offer little information as to the provider of the video shown—ergo, the work takes on an enigmatic, if not sinister aura. Throughout the piece, we see a montage of news footage and cinematic scenes, comprising a window into global warfare, activism, and literal ecological upheaval, in the form of lava flows. Meanwhile, a voice slowly meditates on the relationship between individual cognition and the state’s power to control the flow of information—a power interrupted by leakers, who operate with unsure motivations and consequences. In so many ways, Black Transparency reflects upon the haze of understanding and misunderstanding through which our personal and social relationships now take form.