Daegu Photo Biennale:

Tiptoeing fragile lines between man, landscape

By Ines Min

Korea’s biennales are offering a cornucopia of contemporary art and the imminent kick-off of the 15th Pusan (Busan) International Film Festival will satiate appetites for moving pictures. But for those who still find the charm of the still image most captivating, one of the country’s youngest biennales is exactly the long-sought cure.

Daegu Photo Biennale 2010 opened last week to bring it’s some 1,500 photographs from 22 countries to the Korean public through Oct. 24. The third edition of Asia’s largest photography event ― this year titled ``tru(E)motion’’ ― can be seen throughout the city’s galleries, the Daegu Culture and Arts Center and the Bongsan Cultural Center.

Focused on showing current trends in contemporary photography, well-known Asian and European artists serve as the conduit to defining the identity of the artistic form today.

The biennale’s main exhibition of ``true(E)motion’’ approaches those strains of concept well-familiar with the 21st-century audience: emotion, motion, ecology and environment. Subtitled ``Landscape Calling Us,’’ the considerable showcase of three parts examines the delicate and complex relationship between man and nature, and the resulting landscape that forms modern humanity.

``Seconds of Life’’ provides scenes that are sometimes realistic, other times typical but for those oddly inserted elements create an artificiality. Italian photographer Walter Niedermayr’s startlingly clear, large-scale landscapes represent the unhampered end of the spectrum, while the successful German Peter Bialobrzeski brings his images of human-saturated, urban panoramas.

``Breaking the Edge’’ transcends spatial and temporary continuity by joining contrary and metaphorical elements. The distinct style of Swede Denise Gruenstein serves to show portraits of well-known figures, though heavily colored with her own personality and thoughts. Israeli artist Ori Gersht brings the metaphorical to the table in his Big Bang series that depicts objects exploding with the force of a high-speed bullet, a la Harold Edgerton.

``Helsinki School’’ provides a space for those talented Finnish photographers from the prestigious University of Art and Design Helsinki. As influential as the Young British Artists from London’s Goldsmiths University, these 25 emerging artists are taking the reins of modern photography.

Other special exhibitions include the recurring ``Asia Spectrum,’’ which examines the cultural similarities and disparities between countries in Southeast and East Asia. Joon Kim and Chang Sung-eun help represent Korea, while others include China’s Li Wei, Japan’s Nishino Sohei and Thailand’s Manit Sriwanichpoom.

A variety of seminars, portfolio exhibitions and events will be held during the biennale period. Tickets cost from 1,000 won to 5,000 won. For more information visit www.daeguphoto.com