Living in Evolution
11 September – 20 November 2010
Opening Ceremony: 11 September 2010
Venues: Busan Museum of Art, Busan Yacht Center, Gwangalli Beach, etcParticipating artworks: approx. 135 works, 75 artists
The 2010 Busan Biennale will take place from September 11 to November 20 with 135 works from 75 artists at several locations in Busan, including the Busan Museum of Art, the Busan Yacht Center and Gwangalli Beach
The art festival will make a new attempt of integrating three existing exhibitions (Contemporary Art Exhibition, Sea Art Festival and Busan Sculpture Project) into one in order to ensure faithful reflection of the overall theme and consistency in exhibition planning. The number of artists invited to exhibitions will be reduced from 200-300 to 75 with 135 works to focus more on the quality of works and exhibitions. Region-specific exhibition planning will add the city’s unique flavor and several large-scale artworks are to be installed outdoors aiming to function as landmarks of Busan.
The Busan Biennale has set as this year’s theme “Living in Evolution.” Every one of us is living his/her own individual life which starts from the moment of birth and ends with death. Seen from a different perspective, we human beings live in a continuum of time dating back to ancient times. Throughout the long history, we have gone through biological and intellectual developments, which are expected to be continued in the future.
The history of mankind tells us that arts have contributed to the intellectual growth of human beings. There exist some artworks which had not been appreciated at the time of their creation but experienced dramatic shifts in their value and concept among the public with the flow of time. For example, the paintings of Manet in the 19th century and the objets of Duchamp in the early 20th century were not fully appreciated for their artistic value at that time. However, they have had a huge impact on ways of artistic expression and critical perspectives. Though they might appear to be two separate pillars of time, an individual life and the evolution of mankind are inter-linked and affect each other. It is in this context that the 2010 Busan Biennale makes an attempt at new discoveries and insights on relations between individuals and mankind, past and future and arts and society.
The basic framework of the 2010 Busan Biennale is based upon locality as a port city developed alongside the ‘sea’ with a particular focus on strengthening links between exhibitions.
The exhibition at the Busan Museum of Art will shed light on an individual life in the nature and the one in the urban space. Artworks will be exhibited with such sub-themes as acculturation of cities and citizens, life under a social system, science and logic, memories of mankind and history, culture, evolution of economy, ideal body, etc. At the measurement hall of the Busan Yacht Center, video clips, installations and other types of artworks featuring geographic proximity to the sea and closed space will be displayed under the themes of repeated cycles of life and death in the indefinite time and environment. The Sea Art Festival, which represents a unique nature of the Busan Biennale, has chosen Gwangalli Beach as its venue. Under the theme of vitality and long-lasting time, artworks will feature contrasts with the sea as the source of life. As for sculpture exhibitions, this year will see a departure from ordinary ways of exhibitions observed at the Sculpture Project of the Busan Biennale. Sculptures will be installed outdoors aiming to be preserved as large-scale landmarks in major parts of the city with the selected theme of changing environment of cities and existence of human beings.
AZUMAYA Takashi, who will serve as the exhibition director for the 2010 Busan Biennale, completed undergraduate and graduate courses at the Tokyo University of the Arts. As an independent curator, he worked as a curator at the Setagaya Art Museum and the Mori Art Museum, both of which are located in Tokyo. He participated in the 2001 Yokohama Triennale and 2002 Media City Seoul as commissioners and forged links with Busan when he worked as a guest curator for the Contemporary Art Exhibition in 2008.
Five curatorial advisors will assist AZUMAYA Takashi in planning exhibitions and selecting artists: Manu D. PARK, adjunct professor of Chosun University who served as the exhibition director for the Contemporary Art Exhibition of the 2006 Busan Biennale, Binghui HUANGFU, independent curator who worked as the deputy director of the Zendai Museum of Modern Art in Shanghai, James PUTNAM, independent curator who worked as the curator of the Freud Museum in the U.K., Peter DOROSHENKO, director of the Pinchuk Art Center in Kiev, Ukraine, and Friedrich MESCHEDE, chief curator of the Museum of Modern Art, Barcelona, Spain. KIM Eung-Ki, full-time artist, will serve as a local exhibition director who is in charge of discovering and selecting local artists, which is a major objective of a biennale, and KIM Seong-Youn, representative of Alternative Art Space Bandee, will assist the local director as a guest curator. Along with the main exhibition directed by AZUMAYA Takashi, the 2010 Busan Biennale will be composed of special exhibitions such as “Asia Now” and “Directly,” joint exhibitions such as “Gallery Festival” and “Exhibitions Linked with Alternative Spaces” and diverse programs for education and viewer participation.
Busan Biennale 2010
Sep. 11 – Nov. 20, 2010
Press Opening
Sep. 10. 2010, Auditorium at the Busan Museum of Art
Opening Ceremony
Sep. 11. 2010
Host: Busan Metropolitan City
For inquires contact:
Busan Biennale Organizing Committee
38, Busan Asiad Main Stadium, Worldcup st.123 Yeonje-Gu, Busan, 611-809, Korea
Tel. 82-51-503-6111 / Fax 82-51-503-6584 / bbiennale@paran.com
