Art drifts through water and space for Jeju Biennale's fourth edition

Home > Culture > Arts & Design

Art drifts through water and space for Jeju Biennale's fourth edition

Published: 05 Dec. 2024, 14:34

SHIN MIN-HEE
[email protected]

Audio report: written by reporters, read by AI

Installation view of the 2024 Jeju Biennale at the Jeju Museum of Art [SHIN MIN-HEE]

JEJU — The fourth edition of the Jeju Biennale emphasizes the key concept “drift.” According to the executive director Lee Jong-hoo, drifting has always been deeply rooted in the island’s history and culture.

He gave the example through the tale of Apagi, who was the prince of Tamna, the old name for Jeju, during the Three Kingdoms period (57 B.C.-A.D. 676). Not much is known about Apagi, even his birth and death years, except legend says that he assisted lost Japanese envoys back to their land after they accidentally drifted off course and arrived on the Korean island.

The biennale expands the drifting narrative, deep diving into how it has impacted social, cultural and political issues, such as migration, the changes in the ecosystem and the emergence of civilization, under the theme “The Drift of Apagi: The Way of Water, Wind and Stars.”

The Public Storage for Artworks as part of the Jeju Museum of Contemporary Art exhibits immersive art during the 2024 Jeju Biennale. [SHIN MIN-HEE]

Exhibitions are held throughout five venues, with the Jeju Museum of Art serving as the main venue, and at the Jeju Art Platform, Folklore & Natural History Museum Jeju Special Self-Governing Province, Public Storage for Artworks, as part of the Jeju Museum of Contemporary Art, and International Convention Center Jeju.

Among the works of the 87 participating artists from 14 nations are several Jeju-based artists who explore their own versions of drifting, such as Yang Kura, who found inspiration in the April 3, 1948 uprising on Jeju Island, which resulted in tens of thousands of civilian casualties. In his work, drifting is used in contexts through corpses and marine debris.

A still from ″Forgotten Traces,″ a single-channel video by Yang Kura [JEJU BIENNALE]

Installation view of the 2024 Jeju Biennale at the Jeju Museum of Art. Here shows ″The Nameless Ones″ by Yang Kura on the right. [SHIN MIN-HEE]

Through research, Yang found that the victims’ bodies had drifted along ocean currents onto the shores of Tsushima Island. He made videos based on the interviews of the villagers at Tsushima who had personally witnessed the dead bodies.

“Drifting not only applies to objects but also dead bodies,” Yang said. “I’ve also learned that there’s a cenotaph installed in northwestern Tsushima that faces Jeju Island, and that the villagers hold a memorial service for the victims every September.”

He also linked this tragedy with the litter that has accumulated near the island. He brought back plastic bottles, fishing nets and other waste he found in Tsushima and turned them into a large colorful tree installation. He documented the items he found into a large map.

Ko Kwang-min, another artist based in Jeju, sheds light on the cultural and historical significance of the island’s straw baskets, which were influenced by neighboring nations Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan through the Kuroshio Current. These baskets made up a large part of the maritime exchanges in the Asia-Pacific region.

″Ultimate Space″ (2022) by Boo Ji-hyun at the Jeju Art Platform [SHIN MIN-HEE]

Boo Ji-hyun took the theme of drifting literally with “Ultimate Space” (2022), which offers visitors a visually immersive experience of seemingly submerging themselves in water. The site-specific installation takes place in an old Megabox theater at the Jeju Art Platform that has had most of its chairs removed and is pitch black inside. As visitors slowly enter the room, they move past an illusion of the ocean’s surface that is achieved through a combination of laser and fog effects.

The Jeju Museum of Contemporary Art is holding a special exhibition on the biennale’s sidelines showcasing 143 Western paintings from the Johannesburg Art Gallery in South Africa. Titled “Monet to Warhol: Reading 400 Years of Western Art through Masterpieces,” some featured artists include notable names like Andy Warhol, Claude Monet, Joseph Mallord William Turner, John Brett, Jean-Francois Millet and Auguste Rodin.

The traveling exhibition visited Gyeongju and Busan earlier this year and is set to move to the Sejong Center for the Performing Arts in central Seoul next year.

The 2024 Jeju Biennale continues until Feb. 16 next year. Opening hours and ticket prices for each venue vary. Visit the website for more information.

BY SHIN MIN-HEE [[email protected]]