With Songdo : Remembrance · Marks · People |
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The present is the past in progress heading towards the future.
It is the providence of nature that not only does the moment in which we live right now, but the coming future become past. Someday we might look back again to ‘this moment today'. Being 'the scene of the past which will be remembered in the future’, cultural assets in forms of tangible and intangible will show a clear evidence of the time capsule.
The present as the past forms sections of the nature of the future and becomes the logical and illogical evidentiary material. With the sophisticatedly carved pieces and mystical philosophy, Angkor Wat Heritage has been considered as the wonder of the world and used to live in splendor, but gradually got destroyed, damaged and suffered extinction. The international society has recognized Angkor Wat Heritage with the need to preserve its heritage with a global value, and under the promotion of UNESCO, researches on the people of the time of the kingdom of Angkor and long-term restoration projects in large scale are underway by the world’s leading experts.
Living in an era of state-of-the-art digital information, we are feeling the need to explore and experience the original form of the past. What does this mean?
The Sea Art Festival has experienced 26 years of concentration and diffusion.
Sea Art Festival was held for the first time as the cultural event of Pre-Olympics held in 1987 for 1988 Seoul Olympics, and since then, it has been held annually until 1993. Following a 5 year gap after the 8th Sea Art Festival in 1995, it integrated with 2000PICAF (Formerly known as Busan Biennale) and reached today. Until 2004, the Sea Art Festival was more in a form where arts were placed outdoor and placed value on the communion and communication between artists based on a natural environment of marine rather than being an exhibition which is focused on planning ability. In 2006, the spatial concept, limited in sandy beaches and sea levels, drastically expanded and ‘the arts in the life’ tried to be actualized through public art, and the festival in 2008 was also shown in the form of indoor exhibition blended with outdoor exhibition. In 2011, an independent historic turning point was experienced to develop and settle as a new art brand with Busan Biennale, in order to revive the youth performance and experimental spirits.
As stated earlier, the Sea Art Festival has not been limited to arts installed outdoor since 2006 and aimed to exhibit a variety of flows and discussions of contemporary art. This resulted in the criticism of lacking in differentiated strategies from contemporary art exhibitions along with the local art arena’s opinion wishing for the Sea Art Festival to restore its own identity.
The Sea Art Festival 2013 will be a field that explores prototypes for a new future through history and the process of change. This contact will move on to the future.
Like 2011, the Sea Art Festival 2013 will be held in the Song-Do Beach.
The center of modern Busan was definitely Jung-gu and Seo-gu areas. Today, this so called original downtown of Busan was the gateway to the colonial exploitation of the Japanese Empire, was the last bastion of the Korean War, and also served as an important geographical and historical bridgehead to the economic growth of Korea afterwards. Park Geok Je, the chief administrator of Seo-gu district, recalled that “Song-do Beach at the time of being the administrative district in Busan when the population was 150,000, there were 200,000 visitors a day, enough to pass as a national attraction, in the summer” and “this year is also the 50th anniversary of elevation in the status (becoming the city under the direct control of the central government) and it is looking forward to launching the flare of the resurrection of the original downtown.” (BusanIlbo, Jan 3, 2013)
The fact that Song-do Beach (which has its 100th anniversary) regains its past glories and that a lot of people including the citizens of Busan are trying hard for this, is significant by itself. But rather than being a glittering beach which focuses on international conference facilities and large facilities for business and tourist, what if it becomes a humane attraction which can warmly comfort the people like in the old days where it used to embrace the exhausting modern history? Perhaps the original meaning that Song-do Beach gives to this city called Busan and the natives lies here?
The Sea Art Festival 2013 ‘With Song-do: RemembranceㆍMarksㆍPeople’ begins from the perception of the Sea Art Festival trying to restore the original forms of exhibition and the meaning that Song-do Beach has throughout 100 years of long-standing history. Not only with its own intention to revive the desire and the will of the local artists, the recovery of Sea Art Festival tries to restore and expand the intangible form of heritage which has carried the current of Busan Art, through the institutional foundation under the restoring program and reflects hope to produce a wider scope of social value so it can play a part in inspiring awareness of culture in the community and forming social discussion. Selecting this space of Song-do is suggesting that once fancy, but forgotten past (remembrance) of Song-do, the changing present (marks), and the future yet to come (people) stand in the same starting point as the Sea Art Festival (With Song-do), and wishes that the present Song-do of 2013 can become a place of communication and space-time where various values can encounter each other.
We wish that Song-do Beach which is celebrating the 100th anniversary can soar once again with the Sea Art Festival. |
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