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.
- Date 2024. 8. 17. – 10. 20. Every Sunday
- Venue Busan Museum of Contemporary Art, 2F Lobby
- Content Tape Music imitates the mechanical reading process of a self-tape with musical scores embroidered on it. The readers in the performance recite the long 'tape' given to them without a conductor or rehearsal, forming and developing harmonies by finely tuning each other's sounds. This Tape Music series showcases how impromptu collaboration and performance can form a temporary community that is achieved through collective intelligence and creativity.
Lin Chi-Wei, Tape Music
- Date 2024. 8. 17. – 8. 18.
- Venue Busan Museum of Contemporary Art, 2F Lab
- Content The concept of a 'promise' is a kind of social insurance for the near future. A promise is a precursor to action, recognising the related obligations and agreements, accompanied by a pre-established sense of trust and satisfaction. However, the goal of mutual fulfilment through promises can equally fail to be realised due to unpredictable conditions, leading instead to discord. Layne Waerea considers the space between agreement and disagreement as the place where social promises exist, believing that they lead us to independent and primary objectives. By offering 'free promises' to participating audiences, he explores the idea of social promises.
Layne Waerea, Free Promises
- Date 2024. 8. 17.
- Venue Busan Museum of Contemporary Art, B1F
- Content Reinterpreting the anecdote of Buddha placing the 'begging bowl' upside down, the artist flips about 1000 bowls laid out on the exhibition space floor one by one. This act symbolises the renunciation of our 'begging bowls' and represents the artist's refusal and resistance to oppression and discrimination experienced under the Indian caste system.
Rajyashri Goody, No real good can be secured by over-modest
