The Busan Biennale 2006, which will be open from Sept. 16 to Nov. 25 under the theme of ‘Everywhere’, comprises the Contemporary Art Exhibition and the Sea Art Festival. About 280 artworks from 40 countries will participate this year. The exhibitions seek to discover a constellation of conflicts between urban life and society composed of politics, economics, environment, education, culture, etc. and propose to approach the issue with artistic imagination.

The Contemporary Art Exhibition, directed by independent curator Manu Park, will present about 140 artworks from 40 countries. The artworks will be displayed in places as diverse as Busan Museum of Modern Art, the measurement room in Busan Yachting Center, Regional Cable TV, and Mini FM radio. Under the theme of ‘A Tale of Two Cities: Busan-Seoul/Seoul-Busan’, the exhibition addresses through narrative artworks the phenomenon of centralization, common in countries in Asia and Latin America, which underwent colonial modernization. This practical attempt of contemporary art aims to stimulate urban imagination. This year’s exhibition is composed of 5 CAFEs (Contemporary Art For Everyone), seeking to embody contemporary art for the public.

CAFÉ 1, which is held in Busan Museum of Modern Art, presents 63 artworks of pictures, paintings, photographs etc., including 8 large-scale installation works. These works form the main artery in the context of exhibitions by raising fundamental questions on the social functions and roles of contemporary art in dealing with the matters of centralization and imbalance. CAFÉ 2, jointly prepared by 9 co-curators, unfolds in the Busan Yachting Center. It features a total of 31 works under the theme of ‘Non-Place’. They depict unique natural environments in specific locations and public spaces stripped of historical memories. Most artworks exhibited are artistic attempts to make new interpretations of mass media culture under the concept of Culture Jamming. CAFÉ 3 is held at Oncheoncheon, an ecological stream similar to a project implemented in Seoul. The CAFE features 20 works comparing the reality of Busan with the way Busan is perceived in the capital Seoul. It also presents me thods to address the differences in this image. Lastly, CAFÉ 4 and 5, whose motif is ‘Radioscape’, pursues a new form of exhibition combining contemporary art with mass media. Having “Public Access” as a topic for discourse, the two CAFEs experiment with the public acceptance of contemporary art by using mediums such as TV, radio, and the Internet. CAFÉ 4 enables the public to be able to appreciate contemporary moving picture works at home through CJ cable, a cable company based in Busan. CAFÉ 5 is a unique multimedia project combining small output FM radio with web-based podcasting, thus making the Busan Biennale 2006 available anywhere in the world.

The Sea Art Festival, directed by Byoung-Hak Ryu, a Germany-based independent curator, proposes the intervention of art in our living space under the theme of ‘Art in Life’. Composed of ‘Public Furniture’, ‘Living Furniture’, etc., the Sea Art Festival presents 120 works from 16 countries. Public Furniture attempts an artistic transformation of public areas. Through artistic intervention in existing Street Furniture such as observatory towers, benches, crosswalks, trashcans, etc., the Festival seeks to transform Haeundae Beach, a special tourism zone of Korea, into an artistic space throbbing with contemporary art. An indoor exhibition, ‘Living Furniture’, provides a unique chance to experience art in living space and everyday life by inspiring artistic imagination into the household furniture. In Living Furniture, which consists of artworks created by 60 artists from Korea, China and Japan, our living space such as the bedroom, living room, kitchen, and bathroom, gets transf ormed into art pieces, reflecting human desire to dream of ideal living space. The exhibition spot will be the Busan Biennale 2006 Pavilion, constructed under the sponsorship of SK E & C CO., LTD

The Contemporary Art Exhibition and the Sea Art Festival, the main exhibitions of the Busan Biennale 2006, are not exhibitions confined to fixed frames prepared by exhibition planners, but rather a new forum for the contemporary art where participants, artists, curators, officials in the field, and most importantly, the viewers are involved in the creation of exhibits. These are festivals all of us can enjoy anywhere and in any social situation.

Busan Biennale 2006
Sep.16 - Nov.25, 2006, Busan Museum of Modern Art, Haeundae Beach, Busan Yachting Center, etc.

Press Opening
Sep. 15. 2006, Auditorium at the Busan Museum of Modern Art

Opening Ceremony
Sep. 16. 2006, Auto-free Zone (next to the Busan Museum of Modern Art)

For inquires contact
Busan Biennale Organizing Committee
23rd floor. Busan City Hall. YeonSan 5-dong Yeonje-gu Busan
Tel. 82-51-888-6691~9 / Fax 82-51-888-6693 / [email protected]
http://www.busanbiennale.org