Words and Actions :

Towards 2011
Incheon Women Artists Biennale

International Symposium
2010. 12. 21
Incheon Multiculture & Art Centre:
International Conference Room

Incheon Women Artists Biennale Organizing Committee

Incheon, korea

2010. 12. 21

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CONTENTS

2011

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2011

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Symposium for the successful direction of 2011 Incheon Women Artists' Biennale

Words and Actions: Towards 2011

Incheon Women Artists Biennale

Date : 2010.12.21(Tue) 15:30 18:00

Venue : Incheon Multiculture & Art Centre: International Conference Room
Auspices : Incheon Women Artists Biennale Organizing Committee
Host : Jung, Phil Ju
15:30
Greetings

Kwon, Kyung-Ae (Head of the Organizing Committee)

15:50 - 16:10

Again, Thinking about the Old New Possibility of Womens Art

Lim, Jung Hee

16:10 16:30

The Identity of Biennale and Women Artists Biennale

Cho, Sun Ryung

16:30 16:50

An Alternative Perspective on the Incheon Women Artists Biennales Controversy

Han, Heng-Gil

16:50 17:10

Suggestion for Sustainability of International Incheon Women Artists Biennale

Yang, Eun Hee

17:20 18:00
Discussion

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To Bloom a Flower of History as a Cultural City

Kwon, Kyung-Ae | Head of the Organizing Committee
Professor at Dongduk Womon's University
International Incheon Women Artists' Biennale, realized and developed by Incheon City's cultural policies
and women policies, is expected to achieve further growth by exploring the past and the contemporary time,
women and the environment of the future, and the issue of peace through artworks.
It is said that the 21st Century is the century of women. The women artists of Incheon has created this distinct event
for Incheon, known as the barren land of culture, and many world-class artists and critics have visited Incheon to
share their spirits despite the poor environment and the many challenges. It is valuable that this Women Artists'
Biennale is held in Incheon, spotlighted by the art sector and women artists and enjoyed by the people of Incheon.
Monthly Art introduced Incheon Women Artists' Biennale in a special article (pp. 82-105) with inserts in its
September 2009 issue and other art magazines have also published special articles on it. Public Art, recently
named the best art magazine by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, published a special collection of
"Invention of Art 50" in its July 2010 issue. It was about "50 themes of first art" invented and recorded since
around 2000 B.C. Among them were Jan van Eyck's the first portrait, the Sotheby's the first art auction,
Venice Biennale as the first Biennale, Marcel Duchamp's first moving artwork, and Pablo Picasso's first
collage, and Incheon Women Artists' Biennale was recorded as the world's first women artists' Biennale.
Culture Journal 21(2010) writes : Which country was the first to found an international women artists'
Biennale only for women artists? Is it Mexico, the home of world-famous women artist, Frida Kahlo? Is
it Germany, the home of Kathe Kollwitz, the creator of 'The Weavers' Revolt'? Is it Italy, the home of
Gentileschi? 'NO.' The answer is Korea.
These achievements have greatly contributed to developing Incheon into a cultural city and many world-class artists
will continue to visit Korea to participate Incheon Women Artists' Biennale. Therefore, Incheon will be recognized
as the Mecca of women's art. With the continued support of the Korean government and Incheon City to Incheon
Women Artists' Biennale, Incheon will gain recognition and bloom its flower of history as the city of world's culture.
We are currently in labor at an effort to continue the Biennale that we have promised to hold every other year,
and we hope that this symposium leads to mutual understanding and active participation. I truly thank those
of you who have delivered speeches for the development of Incheon Women Artists' Biennale.

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Again, Thinking about the

Old New Possibility of Women's Art
Lim, Jung Hee | Adjunct Professor, Department of Humanities and Arts
Yonsei University, Aesthetics/Cultural Theory

Introduction
Currently, Incheon City is facing many controversies concerning the identity of Incheon Women Artists'
Biennale and there are fierce debates on the character of the 2011 Incheon Women Artists' Biennale and
the sustainability of Incheon Women Artists' Biennale. The characteristic of the controversies is that they
involve conflicts regarding the discourse of women's art, conflicts regarding different view of the unique
locality of Incheon, and different judgments about Biennale as a form of cultural exchange.
Needless to say, Incheon Women Artists' Biennale Organizing Committee's autonomous pursuit of identity
determines the development of Incheon Women Artists' Biennale. Incheon Women Artists' Biennale can be
opened up to the world and others only when Incheon Women Artists' Biennale Organizing Committee has
confidence in its identity. Even so, it is difficult for Incheon Women Artists' Biennale Organizing Committee
to stay away from isolation, polarization, and exclusivity due to the fear of loss of identity when it is too
immersed in autonomous identity. It is important to take an open structure beyond exclusivity and pursue
self-generation by experiencing and accepting difference.
Therefore, Incheon Women Artists' Biennale Organizing Committee must make efforts to resolve conflicts
in various dimensions of the local region. Incheon Women Artists' Biennale should be a space of cultural
exchange where foreign values and various aesthetic standards can be experienced, and such foreign
values and various aesthetic standards can be seriously and clearly discussed by the public. Also, it should
be able to participate in broader discourses of the society through emotional experience and intellectual
challenges. The identity of 'women's art' and the local identity of Incheon could pursue constant change
without being stabilized or solidified as a certain image or semantics only when Incheon Women Artists'
Biennale stays open-minded.
In this respect, Incheon Women Artists' Biennale Organizing Committee's upcoming symposium is closely
correlated with the attempts or efforts to reconfigure the subjects of Incheon Women Artists' Biennale (search
of new subjectivity and process of new signification). I believe that the identity of women's art is always
flexible under the influence of various elements without a clear definition, because it is about women and
about art. The semantics of women is never consistent and the semantics of art is never consistent.

17

Women are not isolated individuals and art is not created in an isolated place. They are intertwined with
the complicated social entities and overlap various areas with the intervention of powers that operate in the
society. The identity of women's art can have a tendency, but it cannot be fixed or repeated in a certain
form. It is generated in the ongoing process of mixing with something heterogeneous and unknown. I hope
that this symposium can help us see the new power of generation and passion of Incheon Women Artists'
Biennale.

1. The possibility in the duality of women's art

There is a big difference between understanding women's art as a cultural practice or action and
understanding it as a certain profession (or cultural product). Cultural practice, performed in search of the
meaning of one's existence, is one of the basic needs of human life and classified into political practice,
economic practice, artistic practice, religious practice, and educational practice. The characteristic of
cultural practice is that it is an inevitable act of life. If cultural practice is combined with the general desire of
self-expansion to improve and change one's life, the category of profession undergoes differentiation and
systemization as the desire combines with the social environment. Therefore, practice widely involves the
system and the world, whereas profession revolves around a certain systemized zone.
Profession always includes 'newly interpreted practice' in the systemized zone, of course, but practice takes
a preliminary role as a system of profession is possible only when practice already exists. Women's art as
a profession has been able to settle as a social system through artistic practices that have expanded the
tools of artistic representation to everyday life, or by deconstructing and reconstructing the social interests
concealed by old customs that used to separate human activities into general interests and special interests
hierarchically. While being agitated and moving back and forth in between already artists and not-already
artists, and already-artistic operations and not-already-artistic operations, it has been given the category
of women's art and women artists distinguished from standardized art and artists.
Therefore, women's art exists on the experience and perception of beings excluded and isolated from
both gender and art. Called feminine, these new experience and perception not only resist the narrowmindedness and exclusivity of customary art that does not accept others and wishes to be conceived and
to function within the framework of homogeneity, but they also make inseparably close relationships with
all liberal interests of the world (the principle of self-organization with self-decisiveness). In other words,
women's art is a limited place where you critically realize that man-centered art lacks feminine experience
and perception, but it is also a positive place that recognized the possibility of applying feminine artistic
experience and perception to reveal the totality of human existence. Women's art includes both the images
of man-centered art and the images of newer (in fact, older) art.

The meaning and value of women's art vary dramatically by the view of duality of women's art, whether it is
contradictory or mutually supplementary. For example, those who perceive it as something contradictory
believe that women's art, although it resists man-centered art, is still derived from man-centered art and

18

needs to be restricted by the existing order of art as it lacks autonomy and self-decisiveness. On the
other hand, those who perceive as something mutually supplementary believe that feminist art, failing to
settle amongst man-centered art, bears complexity and dynamics as it deals with the interactions and
experiences of various social sectors beyond the existing boundaries of art. In other words, they believe
that the complexity and dynamics of women's art generate imagination and sensibility and diversify human
abilities across all areas of life beyond binary categorization (women's art vs. men's art, mainstream art vs.
non-mainstream art, extraordinary art vs. ordinary life, etc).
The duality of women's art is not as antinomic as the former that relies on certainty. Even when it is
uncertain, it can experience new anthropological changes where aesthetic experience heightens ethical
awareness with the supplementary logic of possible duality. Because of the inherent duality of women's
art, women's art awakens the limitation of art confined in the system of profession and that artistic practice
is the list of universal characteristics of humankind by artistically specializing the non-professional area though no one can avoid - of life, which is considered the outer perimeter of art.
Therefore, if you can no longer read the intention to expand the understanding of human to social
dimensions through aesthetic expansion in the name of women's art and if women's art simply pursues
monolithic coding of special aesthetic paradigm, it means women's art has forgotten its history of
existence.

Until today, women's art along the frontline of Incheon Women Artists' Biennale has not encouraged active
communication between already women artists and not-already women artists, already artistic operations
and not-already artistic operations, and places of artistic acts now and places of artistic acts all the time.
The grounds of existence of women's art should be expanded to the next dimension with the understanding
of women's art as a category of cultural practice as well as with the efforts to settle as a profession.
In fact, artistic practice based on gender difference has been partially systemized in various societies along
the course of history since the emergence of humanity. As gender identity is not individual or spontaneous,
but relative to various social relationships and contexts, artistic practice containing the question of gender
identity has inseparable relationship with the social and environmental conditions of its existence. Therefore,
women's art opens new possibilities and conveys liberal interests only when comprehends its existence in a
dualized structure, in terms of women or art, and in individualized or social and environmental perspectives.
Women's art can exist as a part of numerous semantic systems of the history of man as long as it questions
its existence through artistic languages that are official to both men and women or unofficial and holds the
strength to define itself within social relations as an individual entity and social and environmental conditions.
Liberal interests of womens art cannot be fully addressed by the theory, concept, or discourse of women's
art. In particular, women's art in the Korean society has emphasized the theoretical aspect and has been
intellectually and emotionally stimulated by introducing women artists from Europe and the U.S. However,
not much has been newly discovered about the Korean women and their culture. The cultural reality of the
Korean society has been missed out from the discussion of women's art, meaning that women's art has

19

lacked its character as a political practice. Isn't it because women's art in the Korean society has been
pushed by the accelerating trend of cultural globalization since the 1990s without taking active roles in the
change of time? Doesn't it mean that it has lacked in-depth approach to the reality of women and art in
the Korean society, trying to join the globalized mainstream paradigm of women's art? It is necessary to
examine whether lack of reality is the blind point of women's art in the Korean society.
Women's art in the West, contemporary women's art, and women's art of feminist artists (as professionals)
are just different types of women's art and none of them can be the perfect representation of the entire
women's art. Likewise, art and non-art, women and non-women, here and not here, and now and not
now are not contradictory or separate, but circulatory, connected, and interdependent relationship. A life
here can be an artistic area there, and the women cooks of the old times and that place can be the women
artists of now and this place. If women's art supports the transition of boundaries by seeing differently,
thickly, and slowly rather than insisting on unitary compromise and conformism, women's art, depending on
women's art as a profession and women artists as professionals, is taking a degenerative turn while denying
the realization of numerous possibilities and confining itself to simplified subjects.

2. Multicentric System of Festival and the Formality of Women Artists' Biennale

Festival is the combination of feast (festa dies), the celebration of pleasure and congratulation, and fast
(memoria dies), the commemoration of sadness and atonement, and refers to the act of acknowledging the
duality of life - pleasure and sadness - and taking advantage of celebration and commemoration for selfrealization. The root of 'festival' is festivalis, the Latin term for a holy day, meaning that it is closely related
to religious rituals. In the traditional society, including the ancient society, many festivals originated from
holy religious rituals. Some of the examples would be Jecheon Ritual, an ancient festival of Korea, the New
Year's ritual of the Mayan tribe, and the Peruvian Sun Festival. The Sun Festival, originated from the Incan
Age to serve the sun god, involved nine days of passionate feast after a rigorous ritual, manifesting that
festival is a multicentric system consisting of ritual (cosmos, objective) elements and non-ritual (chaos, nonobjective) elements.

The dualized structure of festival contains both the image of order that takes everything inside nature as its
objective and mutual tool and the image of disorder that reveals limits through resistance and rejection to
stimulate the image of order. It recognizes order (the world of truthful and profound reality) and discovers
beauty within it, but it also rejects, questions, and reproduces it to pursue the power of practice that can
destroy order and create new order in the chaos (the compulsion to participate in empirical reality).
Because of duality or double-sidedness of festival - official and unofficial acts, holiness and vulgarity,
silence and loudness, peace and passion, artificial culture and unartificial nature (human culture and human
disposition), and worldly vision and basic wills of life - it can serve as lens through which you can understand
the existence and life of humankind from a more open and vibrant point of view.

20

The actual mechanism of this lens of festival is powered by the aesthetic and ethical characteristics of festival
based on the symbiosis of men and nature. The balance-imbalance of men and nature forms inseparable
epistemological and ontological pairs. Because of the duality that can either match or mismatch, human
abilities expand and shrink and the relationship of truth and false, and virtuality and reality can change.
Therefore, the double-sidedness of festival should be evaluated dynamically based on the logic of mutual
supplementation. When viewed through this lens, men can be seen as a part of the network that is mutually
linked and dependent on all natural phenomena and the relationship of nature-men-society can encourage
creative connectivity and horizontal links.
The double-sidedness of festival takes your emotion and reason out of a narrow dimension to an expansive
change. Aesthetical experience promotes ethical maturation. Historically, there are many cultural
achievements that display unity of nature and men, but these achievements are confined in secret and
formal languages and cannot actively make communication in the modern Korean society. In Korea, many
local communities host festivals as places to distribute political slogans or events of economic show-off
and the complex and dynamic process of festival is replaced with easily managed and comprehended
simple forms. Therefore, it is difficult to experience the effect of spontaneous, coincidental, and unexpected
participation. The duality of festivals is restricted or controlled so that new desires and generations cannot
play actively and liberally. It seems that there is an abyss in between professional curators of festivals
and participants, already configured contents of festivals and not-already occurred happenings, and
undesignated places where festivals can take place and designated places open for festivals. However,
festivals, as temporary places where you can explore the possibility of self-expansion in the reality of dreams
and fantasies and the reality of action and pain, are not the elements of utopia far into the future, but the
symbols of historical movements always renewed by reinterpretation, rediscovery, or reconceptualization.
Since 'women's art' bears actual possibility when the historically dualized characters of women's art
are comprehended in a mutually supplementary relationship, wouldn't it be possible to experience the
connection and interaction of various heterogeneous cultural practices and acts if 'Women Artists' Biennale'
adopts a multicentric system of festival?

All this time, the government and the market, despite the difference in basic philosophy and roles, have
taken similar stances in that they have tries to dominate and utilize culture and art to achieve their purposes.
It is wrong, but they believe that culture and art are not as important to life as politics or economy. However,
political authority or material abundance acquired without aesthetical and ethical consideration of one's life
is empty and vulgar. It is the duty of not only the people of Incheon, women, and artists, but also everyone
who tries to pursue self-realization, contemplate themselves, and liberate themselves from all prejudices to
question whether Incheon Women Artists' Biennale has submitted to a political purpose to boast powers
by sacrificing Incheon, women, or art or surrendered to the logic of market to guarantee certain people's
wealth.

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The Identity of Biennale and

Women Artists' Biennale
Cho, Sun Ryung | Independent Curator
All Biennales are settled through series of debates surrounding their identity and reason of existence. As
far as I know, the debates surrounding Incheon Women Artists' Biennale are nothing special, but a natural
process.

Busan Biennale, which has almost found its place, underwent many debates on its necessity and identity.
While working for Busan Museum of Art for nine years, I, as a member of the Busan art community, have
participated in some of those debates or symposiums. There, some participants argued the uselessness
of Busan Biennale. One of the opinions was that Busan's signature cultural event is not the Biennale, but
Busan International Film Festival in terms of popularity and budget and Gwangju is enough for Biennales
in Korea. However, Busan was not always the city of film, but it has gained that image just because the
International Film Festival has been a success. Also, we need to remember that the same debates existed
when Busan International Film Festival was first founded. Many opposed to it, saying that it is reckless and
unnecessary to create an international film festival in Busan considering its various conditions. Now, fifteen
years later, Busan International Film Festival goes shoulder-to-shoulder with many world-class film festivals.

I believe that this symposium for the future of Incheon Women Artists' Biennale should be approached from
a similar context. In other words, the premise is that it takes effort and time for a cultural event to establish
its identity and become a signature event and it is desirable to look at the controversies concerning the
identity of the Biennale from a broader perspective. What is important is to admit that the issue of what
a Biennale can contain cannot be resolved by a material approach based on general categorization or
classification and that it requires some exploration.

I am not in a position where I can present a clear direction for Incheon Women Artists' Biennale. However,
I want to suggest that it would be helpful to examine the cases of other Biennales that deal with similar
categories. For example, we could compare it to Media City Seoul.
International Incheon Women Artists' Biennale, as its name tells us, is clearly a biennale for women artists.
However, there have been several agenda concerning the meaning of categorizing women artists separate

26

from the rest of artists. Also, the link between women artists' work and the identity of women is not always
consistent. Women artists usually have feminist tendencies, but not all women artists do. Because of this,
it is questionable whether Women Artists' Biennale is a Biennale for women artists or a Biennale for womenrelated issues.
The controversies around Media City Seoul of Seoul Museum of Art are similar to this in certain aspects.
What is Media City Seoul? Is it a Biennale on the genre of media art? Is it a Biennale on the issues of media
art? These two areas do not have a common ground. If you look at media art as a genre, you might say
that every form of art besides painting and sculpture is media art, but this type of definition cannot evade
the criticism that it is too simple-minded and outdated. Photography, video, ad digital media are no longer
special or new. Countless artists are freely experimenting with a variety of media. Also, not all artists
using video media or computers are talking about the media culture. In this respect, some argue that it is
meaningless to categorize media art. Some even criticize that media art is being used by the government
policy to relate Korea with the image of the nation of advanced scientific technology. (This tendency is most
frequently seen in Asia and Korea saw many media art festivals come and go across the nation in the mid
90s in relation to its image as the nation of advanced technology.)

However, I do not think that the category of media art is meaningless or unnecessary. It is both meaningful
and necessary for art to intervene in or respond to various issues presented by the modern media culture.
This area is relatively new and newly challenged by art. The questions of how much faster the modern
media culture is changing than other areas, how its changes influence our lives, perception, and existence,
and how we should comprehend and respond to these changes cannot and would not be examined by
technology-centered perspective. This is where the role of art is emphasized.

Among the media art events held in Korea, the most stable one is Media City Seoul of Seoul Museum of Art,
celebrating its 6th anniversary this year. However, this Biennale's identity is still controversial. Its character
has changed year after year according to the interpretation of each curator. For example, the first event
held in 2000 (titled Media City Seoul) exhibited many works by video artists of the 1960s and 70s, including
Bruce Nauman and Vito Acconci, and felt like an Art History book. After that, this Biennale has been back
and forth art's intervention in media art and media culture. There were even more various opinions on this
year's 6th event. Some said that it has failed to characterize itself as a media art event, whereas others said
that this year's event has taken a step forward to discuss the influence of media environment on humans
when all previous events simply focused on showing off the new technology.

I think that the theme, Trust, was a good theme that surpasses the narrower interpretation of media art.
Our trust in media culture is a common issue, but it can trigger a meaningful discussion on the characters
of contemporary culture. However, I could not say that the exhibition addressed this theme properly. It
borrowed the term, media art, but it was missing the point in many parts and lacked consistency as a

27

Biennale. Therefore, I would say that it was a failure. Nevertheless, it has some positive points in that
it at least showed its intention to interpret the identity of media art beyond material or media. Such
reestablishment of direction is expected to make a certain level of constructive contribution to the discussion
of Media Art Seoul's identity.

I suggest approaching the discussion of Incheon Women Artists' Biennale from this perspective. In other
words, we should admit that it takes various attempts and experiments to establish the identity of a Biennale
and that these attempts and experiments must break away from intolerant mentality bound to preexisting
categories. For instance, even if this Biennale deals with women-related issues, it should consider and
accept the broad spectrum. In fact, I actually believe that women-related issues cannot be discussed by
themselves, but should be discussed in relation to various other issues.

If so, should Incheon Women Artists' Biennale be a Biennale of women-related issues or a Biennale of
women artists? It is hard to say. Each character has strengths and weaknesses. The former can establish
a distinct character and induce active participation of interested curators or artists, but it could appear rather
narrow for a Biennale that has to be held over and over. The latter is broad enough, but it can confront the
question of the meaning of categorizing women artists separately.
Either way, there will be ceaseless debates surrounding these two stances as long as the Biennale exists. (No
Biennale, especially those with special characters, such as Media Art Seoul or Asian Art Biennale, cannot
hide from these debates.) I am not supporting one side. What I want to say is that either of them will be
meaningful only if this Biennale stays dynamic in addressing various issues and away from its comfort zone
and cliches.

The category of 'women artist' would not be very positive if it is explored in terms of welfare or quarter
system or in terms of separatist feminism. As Jacques Ranci-re said, however, if a group (of women) not
considered the advocate of universal values speaks a universal language to contribute to creating a space
for the politics as a space of discordance, this already makes a significant women artists' Biennale. In
this respect, it is not necessary for women artists' Biennale to emphasize the essence or uniqueness of
women's art. Such emphasis would just narrow down the character of this Biennale. Rather, wouldn't it
make women artists' Biennale more significant to make the audiences to forget that it is just about women
artists? The Biennale would succeed when women artists can advocate 'artists' and 'the humankind', not
just the benefits and characteristics of women.

Another possibility would be to address women-related issues through this Biennale. In this case, a more
successful approach would be to address women's issues from a broader perspective, not limited to
women's benefits, and to allow participation of any interested artist.
In fact, women's issues today are generated in the intersections of numerous contradictions and issues,

28

not in an isolated area. An attempt to isolate it to a single area could mean that it has fallen in the trap of
narrow-mindedness and limitation. I would like to quote some paragraphs from Yesterday and Today of
Korean Feminist Art - With Emphasis on Links to the Feminist Art of the 80s that I had written for Cultural
Science (2007):

In the early 21st Century of Korea, defined by the sexual trade event of the Ministry of Women's Affairs and
'soybean paste girls', it seems that feminism is an outdated word. Where people openly argue that this is
the era of femininity, feminism sometimes feels like an old-fashioned decorative plate in the armoire. From a
liberalist point of view, of course, the status of women in Korea has improved a lot. In areas where women's
desire or trait is playing an active role, men could even feel a sense of inferiority.

On the other hand, the status of Vietnamese women who appear in the flyer for rural men's matchmaking
reading No prepayment and no run manifests that feminism still surrounds us today in a different social
context (or in an unresolved and concealed social context). In the Korean society where there is a strong
misogynic view across the society (considering that a lot of highly educated men do not accept feminism as
a politically righteous and obvious concept, but still think of it as wild women's turf war), feminism could be
'something that has not come' that has passed us as a trend.

... If the category of 'women' is not the cause of female identity, but a result, as said by an eminent feminist
theorist, Judith Butler, that is, if identity is a performative thing, the category of feminism itself could be the
product of an essentialistic error. In this respect, change can be positive in and of itself. However, lack of
feminism (or lack of discourse)' could be because of Korean art's incompetence in handling social issues as
a whole. Judith Butler said that the concept of performative identity does not block the need or possibility
of solidarity. In other words, even if there is no universal or fixed category of women, it would not be
impossible for numerous different women to establish solidarity temporarily.

29

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32

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33

An Alternative Perspective on the

Incheon Women Artists Biennials Controversy
Han, Heng-Gil | Curator for Jamaica Center for Arts & Learning
To begin this presentation, I would like to report on a couple of my conversations with a few art professionals
in New York about Incheon Women Artists Biennial (IWAB). As it originated from private conversations,
this report does not represent the New York art worlds view of Incheon Women Artists Biennial, but it
demonstrates that the event has put the City of Incheon on the map of the international art world to some
degree - a visibility hard to buy with just money. Most people in New York have never heard of Incheon.
This invisibility began to change with a biennial that is distinctively conspicuous with its explicit focus on the
work of women artists. All of the American women art professionals and artists with whom I communicated
up to this point had nothing negative to say about the biennial or its explicit name. Male artists and curators
I have talked with have also viewed the biennial positively and found it interesting.

One comment that stuck my mind was by Sara Reisman, the young director of the New York City Percent
for Art program. When I brought up Incheon Women Artists Biennial in relation to a Korean woman
artist, she said: She [the Korean woman artist] would not want to participate in such a gender specific
project. [Because] What I have heard is that internally, within Korean circles, it's not taken as seriously as a
gender non-specific biennial. Her comment left me the impression that Americans would find the biennial
important and feel supportive of it. In the States, Asia is still perceived as a male-dominated society (as it
is), a perception based on photographic images circulated in the mass media, statistics of women artists
participation in major events like a biennial, and the traditional family structure in which sons are favored
over daughters. Placed in the context of this view, Incheon Women Artists Biennial makes sense, and it is
believed that most Korean women artists would support it. Nevertheless, some Korean women artists dont
want to be involved in the biennial, which raises complex questions that require separate attention to detail.

Another comment came from director of List Visual Art Center at MIT, Jane Farver. She said that
the Incheon Women Artists Biennial is important and therefore should continue. She reasons it is an
established biennial with a good history. A women artists biennial, an international platform focusing on
contemporary arts by women artists carries significance today: Although the rate of women artists inclusion
in biennials has improved, it is still far less satisfactory than the number of opportunities and the attention

34

given to male artists. A women artists biennial has the value of encouraging the creation of new work by
women artists, bringing together works by women from around the world to be seen in relation to one
another, and promoting lesser-known talent. A biennial focusing on women artists work is a good thing
and not irrelevant today. Different biennials offer different things; some have become overgrown, but others
are still vital. It depends on the biennial.

I would like to point out that the term a good thing is used to describe Incheon Women Artists Biennial. It
implies that the biennial does not remain within the aesthetic domain but touches upon ethical dimensions
as well. Thus we really have to think through and rethink the idea of eliminating, or disassociating from,
this good event-Arent we supposed to do good things for others? (Isnt there a need for good things
in the world?) For an alternative way of looking at the biennial, I would like to propose seeing the recent
controversy around the biennial from the perspective of a clash between the global and local points of
view. The biennial that is regarded as significant today from the global perspective has wound up with the
arguments for its abolition from the local perspective. This proposed view captures the controversy as a
productive energy with cultural sensibility and maturity. The view also highlights the extreme urgency and
seriousness of the controversy in todays cultural landscape.

It is unfortunate that the local media reporting on the controversy have missed a chance to get a real handle
on it and learn what a biennial is and does: its international aspect with profound impacts on a broad
scale of the hosting city and beyond. I have failed to find one local article that took the matter seriously
and investigated the necessary significances of the biennial for Incheon citizens and the nation, as well as
the world. The local media was so deeply and narrowly focused on past grudges between the opponents
the controversys sensationalism-although the right issues for them to cover for the city would have been
obviously not so much about whats happened in the past, but what is to be gained in the future for citizens
in Incheon and beyond. No article identified the specific interests of Incheon artists in the biennial in a
constructive or concrete manner. The blaming by area artists was generically repeated with no specific
references; the articles were neither refreshing nor informative, only serving to spread a foul mood. No one
thought to listen to the insights of biennial experts or the opinions from people other than those in the local
art circle-Incheon politicians, economists, educators, and general citizens.

To be sure: A well-organized international biennial is not merely an exhibition, but a cultural event that
epitomizes the functioning possibilities in infrastructure and communication among the social, economical,
political and educational entities of a city. A biennial is more than just an art world thing; it is an economic
project of cultural industry and a political statement declaring the advanced democracy of the hosting
city. The priority of a biennial is not the partisan interest of some community artists, but the whole city
s economic, political, and cultural benefits to all citizens. The improvement of an areas social and cultural
conditions is the factor that determines whether or not the city hosts and sponsors a biennial.

35

The dawn of the twenty-first century will have been the period for biennials in the history of art and culture. So
many biennials have been established around the world in the past twenty years; and this tendency has not yet
begun to decline, contradicting the prophecy of many arts experts only a few years ago. The trend has actually
accelerated with the current recession as art festivals and biennials seem to offer the only way out of the declining
economy. Miami just established a new biennial in addition to the already existing ones in the US.1 Other cities
have begun biennials or triennials in Europe, South America, and elsewhere.2 South Korea is a developed country
in the biennial industry (I actually think the most advanced) with its nine periodic international exhibitions.
The sheer number of biennials begs us to change our way of thinking. Among the flourishing number of
biennials, the old modernist aesthetics (for pure art or art for arts sake) are being reconsidered in favor of a
more enlightened and inclusive vision. Contemporary art is called to pay its dues to society: Art is seen as a
cultural policy to achieve political agendas as well as a form of entrepreneurial innovation to satisfy economic
necessity. I do not mean that a biennial is a machinery of political propaganda or a means of a financial
investment, but I mean art that is considered relevant today is that which sees itself in relation to other areas
of life and society whereas in the past it was believed that art had to been seen in isolation in order to be fully
appreciated. (Whether or not such an undertaking is even possible is another question.)

In order to avoid an irrevocable misjudgment, we must see what is at stake when so many cities are
clamoring for their own biennials. Such an undertaking helps revitalize a citys economy and raises the
awareness of contemporary art among its general citizenry, in addition to the political function of consensusbuilding among its citizens and the positive effects of promoting the city as a cultural hub. We also have to
examine whether we, as citizens of Incheon city, would want to give up taking part in an important current
that helped usher in the twenty-first century and demonstrated a shared destination of the world culture
among many cities. Do we really want to get off a boat weve learned to build ourselves that everyone
wants to get on? We all know that isolationism is not a possibility in this brave new world of networking. We
all also know that we can only become a leader of a genuine movement by not thinking of our community
only, but considering those of others and making contributions to the entire development. No one denies
that Incheon Women Artists Biennial is making distinctive contributions to the global field of art and biennials
by focusing on the issues related to womens life in our contemporary society.

The biennials focus on the broader society than is frequently taught for art causes local artists to believe
that the event is dogmatic and exclusive, but that is not true. Making a biennial fit in the perspective of local
artists is impossible unless you change the event into a local arts event. This precisely is the proposal that
1. The existing biennials in the US include the Whitney Biennial in New York (started in 1932), InSite in San Diego (started in 1992), the
SITE Santa Fe (started in 1995), the Iowa Biennial Exhibition and Archive (TIBEA) (2004), the California Biennial in Newport Beach (2008),
Prospect New Orleans (2008), the Bushwick Biennial in Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY (2009), and others.
2. Periodic exhibitions that were recently established are, for example, Bucharest in Romania (2005), Moscow Biennale (2005), the Arts
in Marrakech international biennial in North Africa (2005), Estauire Biennial in France (2007), the Herzliya Biennial of Contemporary Art in
Israel (2007), Biennial of the End of the World in Argentina (2007), Aichi Triennale in Nagoya, Japan (2010).

36

Incheon artists have been suggesting throughout the controversy. I am firmly convinced, however, that
giving up the biennial would result in a loss not only for Incheon city on economic, political and cultural levels,
but also for the Incheon art community and, of course, for women as a whole.

Local controversies around a biennial are not rare in biennial history. Many biennials hold local artists at
arms length, and the local response returns the sentiment in a more or less similar mode: Events gets first
criticized for not being related to the hosting city, then the organizers of the event for being dogmatic, and
then the city for not using the public funds correctly. All of local artists arguments against a biennial that I
know of distill down to an obsessive insistence of destroying the biennial. However, the truth in the local
disputes over a biennial is typically not the fault of the hosting city or its organizers: The primary concern of
area artists is not getting what they want from a biennial, so they must articulate their desires. Once their
requests are formed, it is a matter of negotiation, and it is totally negotiable as long as whats requested
doesnt present an obstacle to the biennial as a whole.

Incheon Women Artists Biennial can become an even more world-renowned event by achieving the
following: Incheon artists should freely organize many exhibitions during the biennial, and the biennial should
actively promote these community exhibitions. The biennial may be the star event, but the area artists are
important catalysts to shape the event into a true citywide celebration. Community artists should be aware
that it ultimately is in their hands to use the biennial to gain what they want from it. Whenever possible,
Incheon city should secure grants for these local exhibitions during the biennial. This is one of the many
ways the biennial can become a part of the city. Successful examples of this kind of management with
local arts scenes are the Venice Biennial and Art Basel Miami. During these extremely successful events,
artists in these cities organize open studios; many arts organizations host independent curatorial projects;
and artists from around the world come to the city to show their work on sidewalks, in plazas or temporarily
vacant spaces. Art is literally seen everywhere in the vicinity of the international events.

The 2011 Tuning exhibition should focus on the recent controversy. The task is not to criticize anyone
involved in the dispute although there are many glaring fallacies in the presented arguments and media
reports. Instead of looking to past errors, it should demonstrate how to exercise constructive debate. There
are productive and unproductive controversies: A productive one involves a process of positive critique,
enlightenment, and production of culture. In contrast, the unproductive one is an act of savagery, a waste
of energy, and the destruction of culture and life. It is in our hands what kind of a controversy we choose to
let this be. A well-used controversy, of which all involved members can be proud, epitomizes the advanced
spirit of democracy and a unifying dialectic that transforms our lifes conditions. A productive controversy
is a work of art, for it takes a fine sensibility, thorough understanding of the world, and the power of futureoriented vision. An exhibition incorporating constructive controversy will open up dialogue between
biennial opponents and proponents. We may act locally, but we should think globally.

37

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2. Tania Modleski, Feminism without Women, 1991, pp.966-967

39

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40

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4. Judith Stacey, "Sexism by a Subtler Name: Postindustrial Conditions and Postfeminist Consciousness in Silicon Valley." In Gendered
Domains: Rethinking Public and Private in Women's History, ed. Dorothy Helly and Susan Reverby, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University
Press 1992, p. 323

42

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SUNY Press. Mascia-Lees and Sharpe, 2000, p. 5
6. Mary Hawkesworth, p.974

43

Suggestion for Sustainability of

Incheon Women Artists' Biennale
Yang, Eun Hee | Independent Curator
Commissioner for the 2009 Incheon Women Artists' Biennale Main Exhibition

As of December 2010, the sustainability of Incheon Women Artists' Biennale is unclear. The Biennale will
take place in 2011, but we are not sure about what would happen after that. For the past few months,
there has been the conflict between those arguing to shut down the Biennale and others who are trying to
save it because it is the outcome of their efforts and love of art.

Twenty years ago, the Korean art world was like a jungle with no path. It was isolated from the world's
art trends and the art system was led by only few art museums and galleries. Today, there are many art
museums (although the suitability and professionalism of their activities are still controversial), Biennales, and
alternative spaces in addition to the preexisting system. Through these institutions, young artists emerge
and challenge the market to be absorbed into the institutions. Various paths have been created in the jungle
of art systems.

What we should focus on is that a number of these new art institutions have been founded and surviving
on public funds. All of these institutions are competitors to one another unless the Ministry of Culture and
Tourism and the limited number of cultural foundations increase their budgets to support them, and as their
number keeps increasing, the portion of budget that is assigned to each of them has to decrease. The
enormous gap between the budgets of the central government and local governments makes the future of
budgets related to culture and arts even darker.

I don't know whether those who insist that government-funded Incheon Women Artists' Biennale be shut
down are making their argument simply to increase their portion of budget, deluded with the idea that
women are no longer the social weak but the social power, or suppressing women, boasting that men
possess superior rationality and judgment like the Machos that women have detested for the past hundreds
of years.
What is clear is that men have never stood unopposing anything women have gathered to pursue. They
consider it as a challenge to their authority. However, women call this oppression and suppression.

44

The purpose of this suggestion is to advocate the justice of Incheon Women Artists' Biennale and to provide
those who are directly or indirectly related to the Biennale with some issues to think about for the future of
the Biennale.

1. To Incheon City
1) We must save Incheon Women Artists' Biennale was born and has grown in Incheon
The government officials of Incheon whom I met while working on the 2009 Incheon Women Artists'
Biennale from August 2008 through the second half of 2009 said that the exhibition is improving and
mentioned after the opening of the exhibition that they should make the Biennale more successful next time.
I don't know where they have gone, but now, those who haven't even seen the exhibition are listening to
someone's biased voices.

Failing to sponsor the exhibition nurtured by the female artists of Incheon through years of experiments and
finally funded by government will interfere with the growth of local cultural activities in Incheon and will be
mentioned as a case where the local government system has failed to sponsor local culture.

Stop listening to the opposers, but try to see why the women are paying to save the Biennale. Governance
is what is needed here. Gather the opinions of pros and cons and contemplate which policy would diversify
the looks of Cultural Incheon in the long run. If the rumor that "It may not be an event sponsored by
Incheon City from 2012," is actually true, it means the government is just killing a native cultural institution. If
Incheon City no longer desires the reputation of soulless government, it is time to show its governance.

2) It is all men who insist removing 'women artists' from Incheon Women Artists' Biennale.
Some often argue that we could just remove 'women artists' from Incheon Women Artists' Biennale. In
addition to that, some argue that it is banal to separate men and women or against the trends to separate
women's art.

This view has already been discussed in North America. Despite that the feminist movement is very actively
promoted across the world and in a large scale in the 2000s, some are talking about the death of feminism,
which is uncanny.1 There are attempts to bury women alive like the queen was buried alive when the king
died in the past.

Also, some criticize feminist scholars as though they study gender, the social role of men and women.
These are male scholars who place men in the center and women gain meaning only in relation with men.2
1. Mary Hawkesworth, The Semiotics of Premature Burial: Feminism in a Postfeminist Age, Signs, Vol. 29, No. 4 (Summer, 2004), p. 962
2. Tania Modleski, Feminism without Women, 1991, pp.966-967

45

If so, what is men's intension behind such arguments? The binary structure of men and women has existed
in all cultures and all historical times where families were led by men based on women's labor. Even today,
countless women are physically/mentally attacked and discriminated in places where they devote their
bodies and spirits, including their home, work, and school. It is still a dominating prejudice that women are
more emotional and immature than men who have led the world with reason. That is why men and even
some women try to avoid any women who speak up their minds as if they are a hazardous material. They
have no willingness to be considerate of loud nagging women or radical women. But did you know that
women have endured such brutality for thousands of years since the world departed from maternalism?
Men who talk about the Biennale without women artists are slashing us again with that brutal blade.

2. To all men who are critical about Incheon Women Artists' Biennale
There was no one who visited or contacted me to talk about the Biennale while it was going on in the
summer of 2009. How cowardly is it to argue that the Biennale is unjust all of a sudden when the mayor
changed in June 2010?

How narrow-minded is it to try to shut down this Biennale that has barely celebrated its second year?
This is why we have to look at the binary structure of men and women not as something of the past, but
something of the present. They are denying that they are downgrading women in this binary structure and
struggling to sound objective by mentioning scores, but they know that they are self-deceptive as they have
been trained to criticize high-class art. They know that art is a human activity that cannot be graded. Is
there an artist who wouldn't be raged when their art turns out to be only 75points?

That is why I am raged. It is clear self-deception for college professors and leaders of cultural organizations,
who are aware of the malady of educational systems and cultural systems that revolve around elites, to
return to elitism and scoring to justify their logic. As men have taken advantage of the solid system that is
favorable to them and to few chosen women, I hope they do not neglect this exhibition created for all other
isolated women.

Do not argue that the issue of men and women is outdated. The issue of men and women is not a trend.
As the art that represents the pain of isolated people and the misery of reality cannot be a trend, it is not a
trend to express women's creativity or to create an open space to encourage it. Trend is a word for those
who consume products, make policies, or lead the entertainment business.

As democracy is not a trend, religion is not a trend, and consideration of the weak/disabled/minority is
not a trend, expanding women's creativity and opportunity is not a trend, but a right. Like an attempt to
recover one's human rights, the right to worship a religion one chooses, and the right to go to school on a

46

wheelchair, it is an obvious right for a group of people to hold an art festival in this culture where it is even
difficult to speak up their voice.

3. To Incheon Women Artists' Biennale Organizing Committee

1) You must see the present of female artists.
For the past 100 years, women have tried to change their perception of women's subjectivity and actively
explored to fight irrationality. According to the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM), an
affiliate to the United Nations (UN), however, about 70% of 1.3 billion population of poverty in the world were
women as of 2002. Korea, although its national income is USD 20,000, is still not very distant from poverty.
The moment they divorce or lose their husbands, women can easily fall into the trap of poverty, having to
support the remaining family. As of 2010, there are a total of 17,152,000 households in Korea, 22.2%
(3,809,000 households) of which are supported by women. This ratio has increased from 18.5% in 2000
and is expected to increase to 23.1% in 10 years. The education level of female heads of households was
52.7% middle school graduates or below, 31.2% high school
graduates, and 16.2% college graduates or higher. Only 58.4%
of them were employed, which was lower than the ratio of male
heads of households who were employed (85.3%). In terms of
occupation, 30.5% were in labor-intensive services, followed by
service (21.2%), sales (15.2%), specialized professions (13.0%),
and offices (10.9%).

Under these circumstances, the survival of the Ministry of Women and Family Affairs, like UNIFEM of UN,
has to be justified for protection of women's human rights and political, social, and economic rights.

What about female artists? Since an increasing number of female students have been accepted into art
schools, there is more number of potential artists. However, it is uncertain whether they are getting equal
opportunities as men in the commercialized art system. Among the artworks newly purchased by the
Museum of Contemporary Art in Korea in 2007, only 10% out of 264 pieces were created by female artists.
Among the collection purchased by Incheon Cultural Foundation in 2009 for Art Bank, a little more than 20%
of the 58 selected artists were women. Artists are already widely exposed to poverty, and many female
artists do not even benefit from the public system. They have to be dependent on their families to survive or
find an alternative plan to make living. The commercialized art sector is even less favorable. There are not
many collectors willing to invest in female artists who struggle with housekeeping and childcare. That is why
many of the successful female artists are single.

Female artists are again divided into several groups. The following is based on the reaction of artists I met

47

while curating the 2009 Incheon Women Artists' Biennale main exhibition:

1) Some of the female artists who have been privileged with quality education, such as education abroad,
work amongst men as if this reality does not exist or is not related to their work at all. There are two types
in this group: those who are reluctant to participate in Women Artists' Biennale because it makes them a
minority and others who take it refreshing to be introduced by Women Artists' Biennale.
2) Then, there is the group of feminist artists. They are well-educated elites, work based on their perception
of the reality, and have profound knowledge of feminism. Some of them are well-aware of the needs of
Women Artists' Biennale to participate actively, while others have no intention to participate in it because
they do not want to work with anyone who are less enlightened in terms of feminism than they are.
3) There is a group of female artists who vaguely cognize the reality of women, but make only passive
movements due to self-censorship that they must resist women with strong personality and make
ordinary images. They work by themselves, but organize associations for group exhibitions to overcome
their limitations. The women artists' associations that exist in almost every city across Korea provide
warm gathering places for these artists. For them, Incheon Women Artists' Biennale is just an extension
of their normal work.
4) You can also find female artists who refuse to join any form of organization and work alone. However,
they know that it is brutally hard to enter the mainstream of the art sector and constantly agonize between
family and art. They are grateful to be invited by Incheon Women Artists' Biennale.

There are many other different types of female artists besides the above groups.
These complicated stances of female artists mirror the complicated circumstances of the modern society.
Also, each group of women should understand one another. Saying, "You lack understanding women than
me," only worsens the conflict. The Organizing Committee must be dedicated to exhibiting the creations of
various female artists. They must remember that the narrow-mindedness of certain men with authority has
been holding back the art sector and has only hurt many younger artists, and must not go down that path.

2) You need some knowledge of female issues and feminism.

The various stances of female artists must be considered when deciding the concept of exhibition and the
Organizing Committee must acquire both empirical and theoretical knowledge on female issues in order
to understand the intents of curators. The fear of feminism that I felt when I first dealt with the Organizing
Committee has almost disappeared. From now on, it is important to understand that female issues need to
be solved by the accumulated theories of feminism and not to be ashamed to receive help from experts.

It is not very hard to find someone who thinks of feminism as a combatant word. It is true that a majority of
women refuse the term, feminism. Why is it?

48

According to a research conducted in 2003, more than half of 1,000 women who were educated between
the 1980s and the 1990s responded that they do not want to link themselves with feminism.3 Only one
fourth of them accepted feminism to a certain point. What is even more surprising is that middle-class white
women who learned about feminism in college were more negative about it.

This shows that women's material foundation is changing due to the changes in labor and family structure
in the post-industrial society and that the complex issues women experience in the labor market and the
realistic issues of increasing divorce rate and decreasing marriage rate have become more decisive of
women's awareness and lives than feminism or gender equality. Therefore, women have developed unique
personal ideologies to explore their lives.4

As more women who have directly or indirectly benefited from feminism are expressing their voices
and interests, the single term of feminism is no longer enough to explain them. In result, even feminists
themselves are holding contradictory positions, making it difficult to establish a common space for women.5

The aforementioned result that only 25% of women would link their identity to feminism is a significant
information for us and Incheon Women Artists' Biennale. This value also corresponds to the above four
groups of women artists. Incheon Women Artists' Biennale's pursuit of Biennale for Women Artists is not
isolated from the definition of women, as some people say, but it signifies the fast-changing perceptions
of women. This Biennale is a strategically important tool for women to narrow down the gaps of interests
and should is an open space that can accommodate all groups of women rather than a certain group of
women. To create that open space, we are in desperate need of women's spontaneous participation and
broad-minded tolerance - that is, it is necessary to accept women's art besides feminist art.

Therefore, if feminism is a political thinking system for women, we must admit that it must be an ongoing
project, not a fixed or static story of women's reality, and is subject to change according to women's
circumstances.6

3. Pamela Aronson, "Feminists or "Postfeminists"?: Young Women's Attitudes toward Feminism and Gender Relations," Gender and
Society, Vol. 17, No. 6 (Dec., 2003), p. 912
4. Judith Stacey, "Sexism by a Subtler Name: Postindustrial Conditions and Postfeminist Consciousness in Silicon Valley." In Gendered
Domains: Rethinking Public and Private in Women's History, ed. Dorothy Helly and Susan Reverby, Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University
Press 1992, p. 323
5. Frances Mascia-Lees and Patricia Sharpe. Taking a Stand in a Postfeminist World: Toward an Engaged Cultural Criticism. Albany, N.Y.:
SUNY Press. Mascia-Lees and Sharpe, 2000, p. 5
6. Mary Hawkesworth, p.974

49

3) We need strategic planning committee.

Incheon Women Artists' Biennale is a meaningful job as an ongoing project. Many foreign critics and
curators have been favorable of it because they focused on the fact that it is an ongoing project for women
artists outside the mainstream.

In the future, more experts should be invited to join the Organizing Committee. Above all, we must gather
experts of female issues, cultural theories, artistic theories, and exhibition curating to establish strategic
planning committee. It has been said that this humble Biennale of women artists has been accepted as
a fresh alternative to the mechanisms shown by the preexisting commercialized art sector of galleries and
collectors and has ripped down the boundary between professional and amateur artists to display a new
context of viewing artistic creations. To convince more opposers, we must encourage the participation and
suggestion of experts and actively endure this shocking situation based on their suggestions.

4. Conclusion
When Gwangju Biennale was founded, there were people who questioned its effectivity in comparison to
its enormous budget. However, it has become a proud event that has put Gwangju on the world's cultural
map. It has taken 15 years of time and about KRW 8 billion each year. I hope that you can show this much
patience with Incheon Women Artists' Biennale, either you support or oppose it. We are not asking for
KRW 8 billion; just KRW 0.8 billion would do.

50

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65

The Future of Women's Art:

Our Expectations for
Incheon Women Artists' Biennale
Kim, In Hwan

The Port of Incheon, with its high and low tides, is a coastal city that can forecast the repetition of mundane
lives and the flow of civilizations. Being adjacent to the capital, Seoul, it has been serving as the gateway to
the metropolis rather than being an independent state geopolitically. Incheon has held up its historical value
as the capital's hub airport or satellite city. Because of this critical position, Incheon has been considered a
city in the shadow of Seoul. Therefore, Incheon's culture has had no chance to show its character.

Entering the new era of the 21st Century, Incheon is rising to change itself. It seems that this city has been
assigned to open doors to innovative civilizations. Incheon has fulfilled its historical duty as Seoul's closest
port and is rising as the new base of Seohae-West Sea- culture. It is clear that Incheon is an advanced city
at a critical position leading to the world.

Born in Incheon, Incheon Women Artists' Biennale is already celebrating its 5th anniversary. Biennale refers
to an art event that is held every other year. Similarly named international exhibitions have been held in Sao
Paulo in South America, Venice and Paris in Europe, and Tokyo, Japan.

Incheon Women Artists' Biennale is Incheon's pride. It is one of the major cultural projects. Among the
many Biennales held around the world, Incheon is the only place that holds a Biennale for women. In this
respect, it is clear that Incheon Women Artists' Biennale is an unprecedented, one and only exhibition in the
world.

Incheon Women Artists' Biennale is an event that heightens the value of women artists as a part of Korea
Contemporary Art Festival. It is worth mentioning that Incheon City has actively sponsored it. This event
is not a domestic event, but it has expanded its views as an international exhibition. It has created a global
venue for women around the world.
It seems that Incheon Women Artists' Biennale is ready for the second era. It is time for a radical change.

66

The event should assimilate with the wave of change to pursue diversification. I expect to see the outline of
the future of contemporary art at Incheon Women Artists' Biennale.

Based on my experiences, I can feel that this event is world-class and bears historical meaning. It is a
valuable event with meanings of space and time. I participated in Cagnes International Painting Fair held in
South France in 1981 as commissioner, followed by Korea-China Art Symposium in Yanbian, China, KoreaSoviet Union Art Symposium in Leningrad (currently Saint Petersburg), and International Association of Art
Critics (AICA) Conference in San Juan City, Puerto Rico. All of these experiences have contributed to my
artistic growth. I have learned to believe that 'I can know myself while traveling around the world.'

An old Chinese book on Art Theory says, 'Read 10,000 books and travel 2,500 miles.' I have deep faith
in this statement. With the development of mass media, the technology of modern civilizations, you can
enjoy the world in the comfort of your home. I believe that this exhibition of women can fulfill its international
functions and duties through the open windows into the world.

Examining the history of art in the world, the trends of art have departed from the wills or abilities of
individual artists and formed clusters. Art has hauled the civilizations with the wholeness of artists since the
Renaissance and the power of various schools.

Since the 20th Century, western art, especially western paintings, has developed in Paris, France a
constructive model of local monopoly. It seems that contemporary art has migrated from Europe, which
was destroyed by the two World Wars, to New York of North America. There is no prospect or guarantee
that denies the possibility of Asia's rise as the new center. Many people are particularly interested in the Age
of Pan Pacific that links Korea, China, and Japan of Northeast Asia to North America.

Incheon Women Artists' Biennale also has the capacity to open doors to a new era of feminism. It will be
remembered in art history as the home of art and the birth place of Na, Hye Seok who greatly contributed
to the contemporary art of Korea. I believe that it would prove that Incheon, one of the metropolitan cities
around Seoul, is the origin of culture, not a blind spot.

67

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68

Dear Incheon City Citizens

We are writing this memorandum to respectfully request that you consider continuing the Incheon Woman
Artists Biennial (IWAB). It is of great significance for all women and men in the world to have a biennial
platform focusing on the international artwork of women. It is with great concern that we write you about
the future of this significant event. Some of you aim to transform IWAB into a regular international biennial
imitating the conventional formats, which would be wrongheaded and uncreative. It concerns us even
more to hear that some of you propose not to sponsor a biennial at all if IWAB will not transform into a
conventional international biennial. These options present a dark future for the city of Incheon, the character
of its citizens, and all of society.

We, artists, curators, collectors and gallery owners in New York, Berlin, Paris, and other cities, discuss and
reference IWAB frequently, for its focus as a women artist biennial and because no other city in the world
offers one. How many biennials are established all around the world today? Making IWAB a conventional
biennial will not stand out on its own nor attract tourism or stimulate the local economy. Some of you
complain and find it strange that there is no other women artists biennial in the world. But that is exactly
the reason why it must continue. Newness always begins with strangeness; otherwise it would not be
new. Experiments and inventions are never comfortable. Making errors and complaints while developing
skepticism and fear are natural traits when carving out a new path into a new future. We admire you going
through all the challenges on this new path and you have to be proud of it: Here is where the future starts.
Do not look at others and do not become similar to them. Do not be lured by the shine of others. Do not
seek for a comfort by being one of many. That is not where the future is. You are making your future in your
own unique way. You will only be the leader of yourself and the world by exploring a new path that no city
has yet dared to enter. With IWAB, you are on the right path. Do not be afraid of going through it. Trust that
todays discomfort promises a bright tomorrow. Do not loose your faith in having a women artist biennial, for
it is extremely significant. Your courage makes us believe that we, all humans, still strive for a better society.
Do not listen to the complaints some of your fellow citizens make. Believe us, it is just the nature of the
newness. Believe us, you are breaking a new ground for future generations to come.
Sincerely,
Artists, Curators, Collectors, and Gallery Owners from Other Cities

69

Sent: 10-11-09() 01:49:15

2009 ,
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.

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.

.
.

Robert C. Morgan

70

Sent: 10-11-09() 01:49:15

One of the great advances of the Incheon Women's Biennial is that it offers a major international exhibition
administrated and curated by women.

Based on the superlative quality of the Biennial in 2009, I believe it shows that women can produce
something of extraordinary high quality that is both sophisticated and significant in contrast to the typical
market-driven art on which most Biennials are focused today.

I believe this is a crucial moment for the Incheon Women's Biennial to take the next step and show the
world an alternative and important model for the future.

Whereas the Minjoong Misul artists are still harboring grudges with the past, supported by a faltering notion
of Marxism, oddly betrothed to academic feminism, the Incheon Women's Biennial is looking toward the
future in a positive way, opening new thresholds of experience for entering into a new world view.

You may use the above paragraph in support of your cause. and kindly give my warm regards to Ms. Kwan.

Robert C. Morgan

71

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http://www.changjinlee.net/

72


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Ilona Granet

This is such a beautifully thoughtout and

heartfelt and brilliant letter.
I agree wholeheartedly with this petition. After so much work, to have the work of the women artists of
Incheon taken over is shocking as the creation of this Bienale, the work brought in and shown from all
over the world,/ the society of women present for the first class choices and installations was so sparkling,
.I agree you should be proud of what has been created at Incheon and celebrate and continue on. As
a young woman artist, I too learned the difficulty but the thrill of bringing something new into the world.
Please, do not turn your back on such a dazzling and building event.

Ilona Granet

73


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75

There are three economical benefits to

keep the Womens Biennial.
Tasaki Horisaki

1. If you continue the biennial, your city will be the leading society for womens rights among other Asian
societies and then toward the world within ten years, not 3-5 years. This will gain your countrys respect
from other nations therefore you will gain economic growth due to the business demand from other
nations.
2. You will soon be able to tie up with different tourism from Asian countries but also the West due to the
respect of creativity among women. Still most of the times tourism gear up by female who manages one
s family finance.
3. As you can see Japan where already went through the economic growth after WWII however it became
unstable for more than just one decade, if you fail to educate your society about equal opportunity and
as such through other media, even if your country has much more respected culture and ethics, your
economic growth will stop just like Japan.

Please see the detail for each reason:

1. Womens right or respecting their creativity are not just trend or anything from the West. It is just a
different way of seeing and embracing your culture and maintain the good part of your cultural ethics.
Since there are more and more labor demand from female, changing the way in which you see your
culture or educate your society for it will beneficial for your country but also in the end more Asian
society would like to learn how Korea shifted to the new phase. Therefore you will become leading city
among other Asian cities. Specifically womens Art could be also the catch to certain society rather than
just Biennial like Yokohama, Japan. They lost target now since it was less focused and tried to larger
audience, hence less attractive for the mass.

I did traditional apprenticeship for ceramic and lacquer Craft Art in Japan for a while. There many Korean
female artists learned traditional craft art under my master. However I was very impressed by them just
because they have sincerely listened to him yet straightly questioned about what they did not understand. I
believe your culture is already much more powerfully equal and respect female. Why not supporting more?

76

2. as example, simple way of seeing the tourism would be this: Who decided to go on family or couple
vacation is often decided by women in the family. If there is much rich culture to see while something
focusing on womens creativity from all over the world, that probably attracts more tourists. Since it has
good hub international airport nearby while very interesting cultural heritage in the old port, there are
much to offer to the tourists from Asia and eventually from the West as well. Promoting this venue in a
different way also improve the profit then rather than reconsidering Biennial itself.

3. A countrys ethics and virtues slightly accommodated year by year and century by century even if you
cannot see the obvious change. While preserving good part of the culture and the ethics, you can
update your core part of such consensus by this kind of cultural event. You could slowly introduce this.
You will then have economic benefit by this because more female could easily come to work in different
profession in which gives strong work force for the economy I feel such flexibility Japan could not have in
timely manner and then economical damage was huge.

77

: 2010.12.21 13:30-15:00
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91

History of Incheon Women Artists' Biennale

History
1982.12.27

Foundation of Incheon Paintress Association

1983. 5.19

Inaugural Exhibition of Incheon Paintress Association

(December, 2010- 26th Joint and Group Exhibition)

1996.9

Plan for "Women Artists' Trienniale" (the plan had been submitted every year)

1996.11.18

Federation Incheon Paintress Association

Incheon Women Painters' Association, Incheon Women Korean
Painters' Association, Incheon Women Sculptor' Association,
Incheon Women Critics' Association, Incheon Craft Women and
Women Designers' Association

2003.12.22

Foundation of Incheon Women Artists' Association

Incheon Women Painters' Association, Incheon Women Korean
Painters' Association, Incheon Women Sculptor' Association,
Incheon Women Critics' Association, Incheon Craft Women and
Women Designers' Association

2004. 2. 6
- 2.19

The 1st Incheon Women Artists' Biennale

Theme : Women-Frustration & Joy
Venue : Incheon Multiculture & Art Centre
103 Incheon Women Artists, 533 art works
Work shop

2004. 2. 10

Corporation of Incheon Women Artists' Biennale Permit

2006. 3. 22

Corporation of Incheon Women Artists' Biennale Organizing

Committee Permit

92

2006. 8. 5
- 9. 10

Pre-International Incheon Women Artists' Biennale

Theme : The Vision of Women Art
Venue : Incheon Multiculture & Art Centre and 5 other places
417 Incheon women artists (327 women and 90 men), 1564 works
Main Exhibition : Korean women artists' exhibition (117 artists, 117 works)
Tuning Exhibition : Korean men artists' exhibition (90 artists, 90 works)
Special Exhibition : Exhibition of the collection from The Museum of Korean
Embroidery (107 works)
Exhibition "Participation": 201 artists, 1250 works
International Symposium

2007.11.10
-12.30

International Incheon Women Artists' Biennale

Theme : Knocking on the door
Venue : Incheon Multiculture & Art Centre and 2 other places
429 artists from 22 nations (341 women and 88 men), 1700 works
Main Exhibition : 33 artists from 12 nations, 66 works
Tuning Exhibition : 19 couples of husband and wife artists, 38 works
Exhibition "Participation" : 296 artists, 1467 works
Special Lecture

2008.6.2

1st Symposium for the progressive direction of Incheon Women Artists' Biennale
Venue : Incheon Multiculture & Art Centre International Conference Room

2008.12.1

2nd Symposium for the successful direction of Incheon Women Artists' Biennale
Venue : Incheon Multiculture & Art Centre International Conference Room

2009. 8 . 1
- 8. 31

Incheon Women Artists' Biennale

Venue : Incheon Art Platform and 10 other places
Main Exhibition : "So close Yet So Far away" 101 artists from 26 nations
(49 Korean Artists and 52 foreign artists)
Tuning Exhibition : "The 21st Century, The Feminine Century, and the Century of
Diversity and Hope" 85 artists from 27 nations
(49 women, 36 men and 61 foreign artists)
Exhibition "Participation" : "Alone Together" 93 artists
International Symposium : Women Artist in the 'Post-Feminism' Era

2009. 12. 14

Appointment of Special Art Corporation

2010. 12. 21

International Symposium
Theme : Words and Action : Towards 2011 Incheon Women Artists' Biennale
Venue : Incheon Multiculture & Art Centre International Conference Room

93

2010 Incheon Women Artists Biennale International Symposium Book

PRINTED BY
Incheon Metropolitan City Incheon Women Artists Biennale Organizing Committee
Incheon Women Artists Biennale Organizing Committee
34-5 Jeon-dong Jung-gu Incheon 400-190
All rights reserved. No part of this catalogue may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means without
permission from the Incheon Women Artists Biennale Organizing Committee.


Incheon Women Artists Biennale Organizing Committee, Incheon, korea