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.
2008 Wing of Atlantis
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관리자 2009-08-28 11:42
Mookyoung Shin? 2004 third solo exhibition, ?ur Contemporaries? embraces the viewer in an interactive space installation which visually reduces typical painterly elements. Previous works had the viewer focusing on individual pieces of work, even though this wasn? the artist? intention, however, this work drew the spectator unconsciously into the entirety of the space. Upon entering this 20 meter installation, one could see walls covered with shoes and hand forms and simultaneously listen to an emitted noise. In the center of the space is a conductor? lectern which lets out the same noise simultaneously, symbolizing the scream of modern man? will.
This Busan Biennale? Wing of Atlantis deals with similar subjects to his earlier works. A wing symbolizes the contemporary, expressing a notion of transcendence and the utopian image of Atlantis. While most of the sculptures in Naru Park are static, Shin? work features a water propeller that moves with the forces of wind and waves. The ephemeral work resembles a floating dandelion petal and seed, lively in form and modern in vision.
ⓒHyungtak Jung _ Independent Curator