On 3 Sept 2022, the latest edition of the Busan Biennale will launch under the theme, ‘We, On The Rising Wave’. The Biennale will put forward a viewpoint that narrates the stories of backstreets in Busan, and how they intersect and connect to those of other cities beyond the shoreline of the Korean Peninsula. The aim is to explore ways the city’s human and non-human inhabitants adapt to this ever-changing world of ours as we ride the waves ahead of us. Join curator Haeju Kim as she tells us about her ongoing work on the Busan Biennale and takes us on a journey through the collective memories that remain lesser known or hidden within the history of modern Busan.

The session will be followed by Q&A. It is held in conjunction with the talk series Village of Rafts.

Please note that this programme will be conducted online on Zoom.

About the speaker
Haeju Kim is a curator and writer based in Seoul and Busan, South Korea. She is currently working as the Artistic Director of Busan Biennale 2022, We, on the Rising Wave, and previously worked as Deputy Director at Art Sonje Center (2017.7-2021.10). She curated group exhibitions Transposition(2021), Dust, Clay, Stone (2020), Night Turns to Day (2020), The Island of the Colorblind (2019) all at Art Sonje Center, as well as solo exhibitions of Shitamichi Motoyuki: A Ship went up that hill (2022, Kunsthal Aarhus), Manon de Boer: Downtime (2022, Kunsthal Aarhus), Koki Tanaka: Vulnerable Histories (A Road Movie) (2020, Art Sonje Center), and Lee Kit: Resonance of a Sad Smile (2019, Art Sonje Center), among others.

About the Village of Rafts
Since the 19th century, the Indian Ocean littoral has come to be submerged under larger global flows of colonialism and nationhood. However, in the last two decades, with the initiation of major infrastructure projects, it has resurfaced as a site for open contestation. Neoliberal expansionism, resource use and geopolitics have dominated recent mappings of the littoral. Today, highly specialised capital, infrastructural, ecological, and migratory flows occupy the sea lanes from Canton to Zanzibar. Despite these ‘newer’ neoliberal algorithms, its peoples have continued to chart their own cultural and aesthetic visions, highlighting a need to discuss how the human agency evolves across this terraqueous terrain. In a series of conversations grounded in contemporary practice, Village of Rafts lays the groundwork for an aspirational network across the Indian Ocean littoral.