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 The History of the Future
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관리자 2018-08-21 11:57
The History of the Future, Silicon mold inside composite case, composite cast of Phaser rifle, safe with electronic time-release mechanism and digital counter, two single channel videos, wooden pedestals, Dimensions variable, 2012, Courtesy of James Cohan, New York and the artists
THE PROPELLER GROUP
The History of the Future
The Propeller Group’s The History of the Future (2012) is showcased at this year’s Biennale. This work uses three different types of artistic media designed to rethink their definition of existence and values in the concept of past, present, and future. The project begins with a wooden sculpture of a phaser rifle appropriated from Star Trek—a popular US franchise that began as a TV series in 1966—which is adorned with floral patterns created using traditional Vietnamese carving techniques dating back to the 18th century. Ironically the object with the decoration looks unfamiliar and becomes even more ‘sci-fi’. In a sense, both the past and the future are contained in this ‘mysterious object’. A short film displayed along with the phaser rifle shows the artists’ journey to an unknown location to bury the sculpture, to be hidden from society like a time-capsule. The GPS coordinates were recorded and will be kept secret for a century. The coordinates are kept in a steel safe rigged with a time-release mechanism, attached to a digital counter, counting down from 100 years, only to be unlocked when the counter reaches zero.