Busan Biennale 2014

Inhabiting the World

September 20–November 22, 2014

Artistic Director: Olivier Kaeppelin (Director of Fondation Maeght, France)

Main exhibition:

The main exhibition, curated by Olivier Kaeppelin, the artistic director, will be opened at the Busan Museum of Art. Kaeppelin claims that artists may have more efficient, sustainable analysis and alterations for various social issues and transformations than experts of a certain field or academics would do. In this light, as he adds, Inhabiting the World implies active attitudes and liveliness towards the world as well as willingness to respond to the world as well as change it, which resemble the characteristics of the city of Busan. By exhibiting art pieces that could constitute evidences of the contemporaneity and implement the future, Kaeppelin would like to represent the consciousness that still remains in contemporary art and artists during the most incongruent, incoherent time of the most materialist society.

At the same time, Kaeppelin attempts to develop particular education programs so that not only can the exhibited works be smoothly understood and appreciated, but also so that the exhibition spaces can act as pedagogical venues.

Special exhibitions:

Along with the main exhibition, special exhibitions will be comprised: Biennale Archive and Asian Curatorial. The Biennale Archive exhibition, titled Voyage to Biennale—50 years of Contemporary Korean Art in Overseas Biennales—will be curated by Lee Kenshu (the previous editor in chief of Monthly Art). Bringing together leading Korean artists’ works, Biennale Archive will exhibit artworks that may represent the new contemporary. This archive exhibition will survey the biennale history from Biennale de Paris and exhibit the related references chronologically, which will become a great opportunity to see the modern history of Korean art becoming radically international.

Another special exhibition, Asian Curatorial, will be co-curated by young Asian curators working in major cities of Asia. Together with about five emerging curators who are recommended by a few Asian biennales, the special exhibition will create a hugely experimental scene in which diverse Asian artists’ and curators’ brand-new works and their original insights may be disclosed. Moreover, this exhibition attracts more expectations, as it will be the palpable visual outcome of years of interchanges with other Asian biennales situated in port cities, such as Busan.

In addition, during the opening of the exhibition, there will be various events, including academic programs, international exchange programs, participatory programs and so on. The academic programs include lectures, field trips, a public hearing, panel discussions that will open a discursive platform for the Busan Biennale 2014 and forums in association with AICA (Association Internationale des Critiques d’Art). Discussions with representatives from Asian Biennales and with chief editors of major Asian art journals will be held as a part of the international exchange programs. Plus, the Busan Biennale will be boosted with Agora projects with smaller forums and artist-talk events and Biennale Lounge as a participatory program. The Agora project and Biennale Lounge as participating events will be conceived and realized in cooperation with other local institutions and organizations in Busan.

Olivier Kaeppelin, France, b. 1949

Olivier Kaeppelin worked as a president of Palais de Tokyo, a delegate at the Ministere de la Culture, co-director of France-Culture, and is currently the director of Fondation Maeght located in Saint-Paul de Vence, France. Kaeppelin curated numerous exhibitions including the triennial whose first edition was presented at the Grand Palais in 2006, Monumenta.