Busan Biennale 2024 Explores 'Seeing in the Dark' with Pirate Enlightenment Theme

The 2024 Busan Biennale, titled 'Seeing in the Dark,' runs through October 20 in the South Korean port city. Artistic directors Vera Mey and Philippe Pirotte conceived the exhibition around themes of marginalization and alternative knowledge systems. Their concept draws inspiration from late anarchist anthropologist David Graeber's posthumous 2023 book 'Pirate Enlightenment,' which examines pirates as marginalized figures. The biennial includes work by Graeber's widow, Nika Dubrovsky, and features Korean artist Yun Suknam, who began her practice at age forty. A key venue is a dark bank vault, intentionally disorienting to challenge Enlightenment-era demands for transparency. Mey and Pirotte describe their approach as inserting 'little grains of sand into the machine' rather than attempting systemic change. They connect pirate enlightenment to Buddhist enlightenment and 'fugitive enlightenment,' exploring fluid positions within systems. The biennial emphasizes analog artmaking amid Korea's digital focus, presenting what Pirotte calls 'critical apprehension' rather than optimism.