Everywhere for everyone.

BUSAN BIENNALE 

BUSAN, SOUTH KOREA

SEPTEMBER 16-NOVEMBER 25, 2006

This year's Busan Biennale in South Korea, held under the sweeping and open-ended theme "Everywhere," embraced two parts: the Contemporary Art Exhibition and the Sea Art Festival, with the latter having been celebrated on the beaches of Busan since 1987. The Biennale has grown from a local event into an international festival of cutting-edge art, while still maintaining the populist tenor of beach culture.

The Biennale brought together 234 works from thirty-nine countries; far more than any other concurrent Biennale. The exhibition included established artists such as Honore d'O, Joan Jonas, Susan Norrie, and Allan Sekula while invitations were also accorded to young and emerging artists. According to Manu D. Park, the Biennale's artistic director, the selection process took him nearly a year of traveling to several countries.

The Contemporary Art Exhibition was spread out around five sites, each called "Contemporary Art for Everyone." This acronym--CAFE--supports the democratic objective of a show that offers "Art for Everyone." The CAFEs were arranged under the theme "A Tale of Two Cities: Busan-Seoul/Seoul-Busan" and revealed the tensions that, in the context of rapid urban development, exist between the center and its peripheries. When viewed from a local standpoint, the conflict between Busan and Seoul is significant in a contemporary world split between globalism and nationalism. The title "A Tale of Two Cities" was borrowed from Charles Dickens's 1859 novel set against the rivalry between London and Paris. By implication of the European parallels, Busan affirms its goal to not only raise its profile against Seoul but also to become a stopover for cultural tourists from Europe and America.

Being a major seaport, a fish-processing center, and the second biggest city in South Korea, Busan seeks to increase its cultural sophistication and international identity by bringing in multimedia avant-garde artworks under the auspice of a Biennale. (1) For example, the city is proud of its Haeundae Beach, one of the most spectacular beaches in Southeast Asia, where several site-specific sculptures were displayed as part of the Sea Art Festival. Surprisingly, the natural characteristics of ocean tides were not taken into consideration when allocating the sculptural sites. It became obvious that the voracious waves could almost swallow sculptures and last-minute adjustments had to be made, adding to the anxieties of the artists.

CAFE 1, the prime venue at the Biennale, was housed at the Busan Metropolitan Art Gallery where a dense selection of video, installation, and photographs was exhibited, addressing such issues as youth gangs, homelessness, poverty, diseases, crime, pollution, overpopulation, and emotional stress. By virtue of rapid economic and population growth, these issues have become an immediate concern for many Asian countries. CAFE 2 was the inspiration and product of nine, young, international curators under the title "Culture Jamming," and, accordingly, it exemplified trendy curatorial teamwork. The show addressed urban culture as a palimpsest of cultural symbols brought from other places by new inhabitants. Several installations were seemingly assembled from piles of construction debris, referencing the transitional state of contemporary urban space. In addition, by utilizing a yacht shed, the curators sought to convert a makeshift barrack into an art space. CAFE 3 took place outdoors in a historically important part of Busan, the suburb of Oncheoncheon. Once a center of activity in Busan, especially due to the proximity of Busan University, this area has become overlooked and its stream has been neglected. The Biennale organizers chose to schedule performance and interactive art pieces along the stream to attract public attention to the historical and cultural significance of this location. CAFEs 4 & 5, jointly titled "Radioscape," broadcast the Biennale's events, interviews with participating artists, and video works via local cable television stations into a world interface--thus making contemporary art accessible to everyone.

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Busan falls into the current tendency toward biennalization, with sixty such shows disseminated around the globe. It is just one of the five Asian international biennales that have opened since September 2006, and the third major art event in Korea. (2) Starting from Shanghai, the "torch of art's marathon" was carried through Gwangju, Busan, and Singapore, to finish at the Taipei Biennale, which runs November 2006 through February 2007. Through these art extravanganzas, an obvious attempt is being made to draw attention to Asian economic potential and artistic diversity. Attracting a European American audience to this region has prompted a reconfiguration of the art world toward the new cultural center of Asia. (3) It is also important to acknowledge the fact that the multiplicity of mega-art festivals reveals something about the process of cultural re-examination that Asian countries are undergoing. New national identities command to be "redressed" with hi-tech mediums as opposed to the traditional materials of the past. But the question needs to be asked: is a Biennale the best way to learn about Asian-ness?

NOTES (1.) Busan Biennale Objectives 2006, press kit. (2.) These events are the Busan Biennale, the Gwangju Biennale, and the 4th International Media Art Biennale: Media City Seoul. (3.) "The Charm of Foreign Parts," Dialogue, Asia Art Archive's online Newsletter, August 2003. See www.aaa.org.kh/newsletter_diaaalogue03.html.

YULIA TIHONOVA is a freelance writer living in New York City.