This year's Busan Biennale will be held from Aug. 17 to Oct. 20 under the theme "Seeing in the Dark" at selected venues in the port city. The photo shows the annual event in 2022. 

By Gil Kyuyoung
Photos = The organizing committee of Busan Biennale

The Busan Biennale 2024 kicked off its 65-day schedule on Aug. 17.

Under the theme "Seeing in the Dark," this year's festival will be held until Oct. 20 around four selected venues – the Busan Museum of Contemporary Art, Busan Modern & Contemporary History Museum, Hansung 1918 Busan Lifestyle Culture Center and Choryang House.

For this year's edition, Vera Mey and Philippe Pirotte worked together as co-artistic directors with 78 artists in 62 teams from 36 countries. The festival will showcase many works from artists from countries that are difficult to access such as Palestine, Iran, Senegal, Jamaica, Ivory Coast and Togo. 

Since its launch in 1981 as the Busan Youth Biennale, the festival has been held every two years. The U.K.-based art magazine "Frieze" introduced the 2022 edition as one of the top 10 art exhibitions in the world thanks to its stable management and planning capabilities.

This year’s festival will be run under the co-title "Korea Art Festival" scheduled from Sept. 1 to November in line with Gwangju Biennale and Seoul Art Week. Visitors can get a 30% discount for admission to the biennale and up to a 40% discount for train tickets if they use special packages combined with the biennale and Korail.

More information about the festival is available at its website (busanbiennale2024.com).

Busan Mayor Park Heong-joon said, "We will spare no effort to make the Busan Biennale Korea’s leading art festival and one of the top exhibitions in the world so that it can contribute to making Busan as a world class city for culture and tourism in the future."

This is the official promotional poster for the Busan Biennale 2024.