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.
| Session | Artists | Date | Time | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | bani haykal | 2024. 8. 16. | 10:00 – 10:30 | HANSUNG1918 Cheongja Hall |
| 2 | Stéphane Schraenen | 2024. 8. 17. | Busan Museum of Contemporary Art 1F | |
| 3 | Lin Chi-wei | 2024. 8. 18. | 12:00 – 12:30 | HANSUNG1918 Cheongja Hall |
| 4 | Joe Namy | 12:40 – 13:30 | ||
| 5 | Uncharted Collective | 13:40 – 14:15 | ||
| 6 | Douglas R. Ewart with Eunhye Jeong, Jin April Son | 14:30 – 15:20 | ||
| 7 | Band Hoppers | 15:30 – 16:10 | ||
| 8 | J-TONG | 15:30 – 16:10 | ||
| 9 | Sadie Woods with DJ GENO | 17:00 – 18:00 | ||
- Content bani haykal is an artist and musician who has been working on experimental projects through text and music. Focusing on the relationship and intimacy between humans and machines, they are set to present an impromptu vocal performance, excerpts from anonymous curses (2024).
Side B: 1st session bani haykal
- Content Stéphane Schraenen is an artist who has developed a unique artistic language, primarily in the form of site-specific installations, focusing on the productive relationships between subject, object, and context. He will present a 4-hour DJ set inspired by the lyrics of Jaimie Branch: ‘WE ARE GOING TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD AND GIVE IT BACK TO THE LAND’.
Side B: 2nd session Stéphane Schraenen
- Content Taipei-born Lin Chi-Wei, a transdisciplinary artist with a background in French literature, cultural anthropology, and media art, will perform Talking Knots, a digital sound score inspired by Incan Quipu, involving over 20 participants. A chorus of over twenty readers weaves repetitive, delicate sound patterns, conjuring an otherworldly sonic landscape of a cold, surreal marshland.
Side B: 3rd session Lin Chi-wei
- Content Joe Namy is a media artist, writer, and educator who explores the identities, memories, and power structures inherent in sound and music. Focusing on the social structures of music and the organisation of sound, he is set to present DJ performances in his sound projects.
Side B: 4th session Joe Namy
- Content Uncharted Collective, formed in 2023 at Städelschule in Frankfurt am Main, focuses on acts with underground methods of infiltration. Lull Frequencies, sound performance by Uncharted Collective, will consist of a pirate radio broadcasted through a choir of radios scattered across the location of HANSUNG1918.
Side B: 5th session Uncharted Collective
- Content Douglas R. Ewart is a Jamaican multi-instrumentalist and instrument builder. He plays sopranino and alto saxophones, clarinets, bassoon, flute, bamboo flutes (shakuhachi, ney, and panpipes), and didgeridoo; as well as Rastafarian hand drums (nyabingi, repeater, and bass). He will showcase traditional instrument performances alongside a pianist, DJ, and various performers at the Biennale.
Side B: 6th session Douglas R. Ewart with Eunhye Jeong, Jin April Son
- Content Busan-based Band Hoppers expresses local stories through rockabilly music, influenced by the Band ‘Stray Cats’. They aim to energise the audience with their lively performances.
Side B: 7th session Band Hoppers
- Content J-TONG, a prominent figure in Busan's hip-hop scene and leader of the Buckwilds crew, brings his dynamic and raw musical style to the Biennale, showcasing his deep connection to the city's culture.
Side B: 8th session J-TONG
- Content Sadie Woods, an award-winning post-disciplinary artist, curator, and deejay, focuses on social movements and cultural memory in her work. She will showcase her new mixtape Titles of War, a sound exploration of misnomers and recategorisation of aboriginal peoples of America, Turtle Island, by victors of war.
Side B: 9th session Sadie Woods with DJ GENO
