I. On the heels of a modernism which realised the ideals of the Enlightenment, another wave of "post"-isms is sweeping the art world. It is this "post-" syndrome that gives birth to postmodernism, post-Marxism, post-communism, post-information, post-human, post-communication, post-structuralism, and post-realism. Drawing on the uncertainty of the times, apocalyptic thinking, or popular texts, all of these "isms" that are defining the art world in the postmodernism period proclaim themselves as new cultural alternatives. If modernism is the peak of civilisation, then these "post"-isms are an attempt to change the paradigm and to criticise the dangers and self-righteousness of liberalism. But these fashionable "isms" have always struggled in the course of cultural or historical paradigm change, and often remained revisionist viewpoints. The belief in the superiority of civilisation was prevalent for one century, but it eventually faded away, as it couldn't establish itself firmly. Now we are surrounded by various forms of mixed, crossed, and strange aesthetic values. Floating around us like mirages these days, new cultural trends like "postculture" and "transculture" still use epithets that were typically used to describe modernism, and they target a number of small groups rather than large ones for their bases. These cultures are oriented more towards exposure of the present than issues of the future, acknowledging personal matters as being social and collective. Baudrillard's opinion that distorted history brought on this volatile state is not necessarily valid, but it is at least obvious that all these trends are inevitable for the creation of new things. Regional interest groups that sprang up after the Cold War are especially vocal in cultural domains. Race, sexual assault, nationalism, the environment, religion, and the division of the territory are frequently the key terms used when diagnosing the culture of post-industrial society. Issues concerning the power of minority groups who pretend to represent the majority have surfaced as the most fiercely disputed issues, followed by that of the structure of dominance. Cultural movements created by a handful of interest groups gradually lose the ability to co-ordinate with other cultural counterparts because they lack complementary characteristics and compatibility. Excessive specialisation and the uniformity of modernism brought another crisis of isolation. Yet productive co-operation for interactions between those who are isolated is still greatly emphasised. Classified and fragmented cultures are not only the creations of other classes, but also of a surplus production that will affect following generations. Although the "post"-structure does not involve any political gestures to secure cultural autonomy like modernism does, it is very possible that it may usher in another black hole in search for the function and essence of art. The arts, falling into genealogy and accompanying cultural movements, must base themselves upon sound national aesthetics and some kind of universal language, and guard against genealogical interests and animosity between classes. Culture is neither a substructure of politics or economy, nor a sentimental depiction of history. The argument for postculture and transculture, and the arts that portray them are neither very realistic nor unpleasant. The argument is rather more aggressive, open, and human than so-called modernism characterised by autonomous aesthetics. It respects national characteristics, and thus is quite generous toward pluralistic cultural works based upon them. It emphasises that the art is the work of human beings and must continue to exist for humans. More emphasis is put on experiences and emotional desires than on intellectual solutions. Reconciliation and the minimalization of conflicts between the creators and consumers of a culture have emerged as important goals. Environmentalist evolutionism is preferred to a progressive historical viewpoint. The argument is tilted in favour of identity, parts, limited aesthetics, freedom, imagination, group culture, images, and dialectical realism, rather than politics, the whole, community, autonomy, experiences, pure or popular culture, abstract forms, charismatic avantgarde, or Freud. Revised from and complemented by postmodernists' outright criticism, it seems to present an alternative to modernistic culture. Yet there are plenty of illusions that hinder our vision. For example, there is the viewpoint that defines the arts of this century as being about "autonomy and imagination" versus "revival of traditions." Contemporary art of the past 100 years cannot be interpreted in such superficial terms such as "abstraction" or "images." Aside from the aesthetics of autonomy and imagination in contemporary art that have progressed for the past century, countless distinctions of metaphors point towards present society and history, and the unlimited artistic coordinative skills of visual media (with the help of multimedia) clearly show the limitations of intellectual thinking by transcending such simple confrontational logic as "abstraction" or "concreteness". When one sees contemporary art of the past 100 years in the confrontational context of similarity and difference, or in the context of dialectic development between East and West during the Cold War era, the art loses touch with the future and history. Art should bring the consumers and creators of a culture closer together _ and this is not to define contemporary art superficially, but to further sophisticate our views towards humanized art. The "post-" festival must embody humanistic principles suggested by the development patterns of modernism and pluralistic art, transcending the mere revival of languages. It must avoid the sense of intellectual superiority or independence, and have the ability to discern things when faced with changes and challenges. It must abandon the complacent attitudes which ignore individual personalities and mistake art for the development of intellectual abilities, and it should establish a new order, instead of forging another uniform creed. Pseudocultures around us, such as cultures of similar patterns or eclecticism in particular, must be eliminated. They are simply stopgap measures to adapt to new surroundings and not the end of conflicts in a true sense. Real communication between creators and consumers of culture means having the will to strike a balance between the production and consumption of the arts, and the road to this balance starts with denouncing pseudoproduction and eclecticism. Therefore, the way to prevent frequent clashes among classified patterns is not to integrate all the patterns, but to provide a broader definition for those patterns, with identities that are concrete, real, not arbitrary, and very communicative. The streets, industrial cities, political figures, and humanitarian interpretation of history during the realism period in the 1950s shed some light on the relation between artistic production and consumption today. John Berger said of the new field art by British artists of his time, such as John Bratby, that it reminded people of the meaning and the importance of familiar and ordinary experiences. He emphasised in art the consumers' right to know, that is, the space in which both society and arts interact with each other. It is a reminder of the fact that regardless of socialist aesthetic theories or Lukacs' textbook, artists must also get involved as information providers, in regard to social trends and development. Artistic humanism may be considered as a Renaissance-style ideology and thus brushed aside, overshadowed by masters of the visual art. Some might assert that humanism can be an allegory for culture consumers, but it is very unrealistic and never has had anything to do with the avant-garde's spirit. Nobody views a variety of visual images of the modern society as rightful doctrines of democracy or commercialism any more. Blind recklessness like radical actions, assaults on humans, crude techniques, and deliberate repulsiveness is not essential for the arts. It is time to have a good look at reality and artistic techniques that are omnipresent in human lives. Art should now close the chapter of new academicism, regressive realism, blinded admiration of civilisation, eclectic class theory, useless worship of media, and image worship. In other words, it should close the chapter of the "post-" era. To have aesthetic pleasure, or to overcome our sense of loss, is possible by forming a common ground for cultural behaviour and by pursuing communal interests. Art has no right to refuse the hysteria of enthusiastic culture consumers. On the contrary, it should educate these consumers so that they themselves can shun artistic products not created from experiences and ideas. The public's defiant attitude that embraces anonymous procedures with enthusiasm, and the public's demand for order (agreed upon by morality and science), is unravelling before our eyes. They are starkly different from the mechanisms of expression employed by socialist modernism. During the socialist realist period, Soviet critics pointed out that the arts of the capitalist West had no particular themes, directions, or values. Their criticism was aimed at urban sophistication, consuming production methods, and the shrewd alliance between art and commercialism during the era of artistic modernism. The grim reality_that art had degenerated into consumer products of the industrial society and was affected by commercial demand_was probably hard to understand for production-oriented realists. Unlike the 1970s, when clashes and strong emotions abounded, in the late 20th century there is less suffering in the search for the clues as to where the arts are headed. A realistic solution is being searched for in the midst of turbulent affairs_the prevalence of the media culture, the sophisticated encroachment of multinational corporations, the escalation of confrontations, and the loss of individual capabilities_that are typically associated with the end of a century. The sufferings in conflict areas have certainly not diminished, and with armament reinforcement the chances of a war breaking out are higher than ever. Despite the horrific experiences of nuclear weapons in the past, nuclear threat shows no sign of abating. While the collapse of ideologies brought about stronger nationalism and extreme decentralisation, artistic tenacity continues to create unique styles and identities. At last, uniformity and imitation are being routed out and culture proves to be the entity that leads to the identity and quality of life. This identity, however, may fall victim to the "post-" festival, in which there is thoughtless decentralisation and selfish small groups who often resort to opportunism. The "identity-first" theory unravelling in front of us is yet to be firmly established. Art of the rest of the 20th century succeeded in maximising the promotion of civilisation, changes, progress, freedom, leisure, and expression. Now art of the late 20th century must deal with the issues equivalent to the aforementioned, such as richness of life, potential for changes, and human affairs. It must avoid conservatism and the individualism of small groups, to be able to grasp the truth of the matter and prevent any distortion. Faced with the horrors of the First World War and the cultural reaction after 1920, modernism reflected in on itself and the outside world for a moment, but eventually fell into sentiments and mystery, as de Chirico and Picabia had predicted. Subjectivity, which is the main philosophy and symbol of modernism, is in fact not fully understood. The surroundings created and the promotional strategies worked out by modernism for continued subjectivity were very impressive indeed, and they were expected to carry on into the next century. Yet the arts were not prepared to console its victims when the promising philosophy of modernism collapsed and the decisions based on it were proved wrong. Looking at the ephemeral creations of mainstream culture, non-mainstream cultures and the forgotten third world that broke away from the centre now express their relief concerning the dark age when they had to be self-sufficient. For true artistic production, art and humanism must be linked by discovering the things that were isolated, and they must continue to search for not just meaningless expressions like "equality" and "humanity", but a panacea. II. The "post-" cultures that contemporary art formed in the transition period appear to reject ideas of superiority or pure aesthetics. Yet what they accomplished by joining forces with small groups is not very clear. Despite constant criticism of commercialism and the mainstream culture, the boundaries between commercialism, mainstream culture, and identity continue to waver. Is it due to the efforts of those with vested rights to cling to power? The sweeping changes that 1970s postmodernists emphasised indeed shook up the entire culture like a typhoon. Unfortunately, postmodernism was exploited in a play of words and led to a postculture festival. There is no denying that the exquisite texts of postmodernism were the proper mainstay of the new generation's behavioural theory. Postmodernism was the major basis for the expansion of blind popularisation and media art, image art, and the publicization of speedy communication made possible through new information systems. However, confrontations with modernism got the better of it due to dialectics, and as a result modernism led only to postculture traffic and more trouble in a number of areas, failing to present alternatives. The Kwangju International Biennale has quite a different purpose compared to other biennales of the West. While the Venice Biennale was about tourism promotion and cultural nostalgia, drawing upon European sentiment and a grand tour of one hundred years ago, the Kwangju International Biennale is about probing Korea's modern history and treating its wounds. The Kwangju pro-democracy movement, in which hundreds of people died protesting against the military dictatorship in 1980, was our most significant turning point since the genocidal Korean War. The military regime stayed in power, depriving the nation of political freedom in the name of economic development, and the reunification of the peninsula was a pretext to prolonging their power. The victory of democracy achieved by the entire Kwangju citizens rising up against the military dictatorship was more than a mere political event. Kwangju had already demonstrated its pride and willingness in the June 3rd student uprising during Japanese colonial rule, as the hotbed of resistance against oppression. Patriotic militias and resistance movements for the nation's independence sprouted in Kwangju. Historically, Kwangju used to be the place for those men of noble birth sent into exile during the Chosun Dynasty, and Haenam, Kangjin, and Wan Island became the breeding grounds for the opposition. Centered around the coastal areas of South Cholla Province, the traditions of Kwangju's many cultural movements, including the resistance literature by the literati class, were established. The fact that the Kwangju International Biennale is openly welcoming records of the Kwangju pro-democracy movement, a major event in Korea's modern history, speaks of the Biennale's broader definition of the arts, putting aside ideological philosophies of pure aesthetics. The Biennale's direction is expressly different from those of the realist school who seek namely the politicalization of art or socialist aesthetics. It intends to prevent any other instructions that might come into being if the future of the arts is declared to be an introduction to a new academicism, or simply, if the general direction is tilted too much toward image worship. Among the philosophical issues of formative arts, what is important, yet quite often overlooked, is that art at times neglected to record the present and has given in to "destiny". One of the reasons why the progressive avantgarde elements of modernism corner themselves, despite the fact that they are probably the essence of all art with innovative and reformative characteristics, is apparently because of their fatalistic posture. In addition carrying weight for witnessing such major events of Korean society, the city of Kwangju has another background as a traditional centre of the arts which has bred a variety of cultural styles and behaviours. Kwangju was chosen as the venue for the Biennale for that very reason. This city holds various cultural entities, aside from such typical postculture texts like the revival of artistic traditions and nationalistic pluralism. Kwangju is different from Venice, which is filled with tourist attractions, or from Sao Paulo and Kassel, which hold international art conventions out of cultural connivance. In Kwangju, historical relics are relatively well-preserved compared to other Oriental cities, and the traditional lifestyle has been kept intact. A number of inconveniences, resulting from Kwangju's being left out of the industrialisation process in the 1960s and 70s, have been pointed out. But ironically, for the same reason, Kwangju could prevent its natural environment from being destroyed in the name of development and its people from being isolated from each other. There are few places where tradition and humanity are valued as much as in Kwangju. In Kwangju, advantages of provincialism and the spirit of festivity are alive and well. Kwangju believes that no matter how long hardship and suffering continue, the will to produce creative art can be maximised as long as there are distinct characteristics and a sense of culture, as well as an unquestionable meaning to life. As the Kwangju International Biennale intends to take a unique approach to the meaning of art itself, and to get rid of the arrogance of a civilised society that turns a blind eye to the arbitrariness of the arts, it pays greater attention to artistic styles of the future and future-oriented cultural behaviour than to those of the present. Sometimes these intentions may prove foolish and unrealistic. But they provide the necessary motivation to remove shameful non-cultural values and behaviour that are under the disguise of freedom. In a sense, they may be recognised as reckless resistance out of immoderate fervour. However, identity crises should not be repeated on account of such culture patterns as spiritless eclecticism or pluralism. In the l970s, when minimalism and conceptual art faded away and conservative genres like drawing and sculpture made a comeback, the art world was overjoyed as if it had discovered new ways to convey the feelings of passion and rage. Rough and abstract brush strokes were replaced by paintings for the conveyance of the message. The new trends were greatly welcomed simply because they had brought painting and handicraft back. They received a warm welcome even when they fell to a disgusting and revolting low level. But now who would sing their praises as heralding the beginning of a new artistic era? Words including "neo-expressionism" emerged as new buzzwords, replacing their predecessors, but they also proved eclectic and part of the dominant culture. In addition, those who tried to bring art close to literature failed to realise their dreams. Political arts, or popular arts that provoked the fiercest discussion in Korea's contemporary art community in the 1980s, was a unique genre that cannot be categorised into either the neo-expressionism or post-modernism of the West. Popular art has its root in 19th-century realism, with some characteristics of socialist realism. Popular art has a fundamentally different philosophy from that of the neo-expressionism of the West. The former mainly portrays the political situation and real problems emerging in the lives of people, while the latter depicts history or tradition. The Kwangju pro-democracy uprising gave a strong push to popular arts, a new form of realism in civilised society, and it continues to remain as its background. Although the May 18th Kwangju pro-democracy movement cannot be seen as equal to popular art, it is obvious that Kwangju and popular art are the two main pillars of the feeling of solidarity we had in the l980s. Resistance against oppression and the political structure is often the theme of realistic popular art, and life overshadowed by civilised society is gravely portrayed. After the political regime of the 1980s fell apart and democracy was reinstated, popular arts saw diversified themes and expressive styles, while maintaining the form of realism. New themes like environmental pollution, ecological interests, and communal cultural production appeared. The spirit of the Kwangju pro-democracy movement was the basis of the independent cultural consciousness of the 1980s, and the popular arts of this decade contributed greatly to regaining the independent spirit of contemporary art in Korea, as well as to the collapse of the class with vested rights, and to the rejection of mainstream culture. In other words, the spirit of the Kwangju pro-democracy movement contributed greatly to arresting the predominance of Western-style thoughts and patterns that had been widespread in Korean culture. In this sense, Kwangju is more than a political victim or an alienated region_it is an origin of value for the arts. The Kwangju International Biennale Declaration mentions independent cultural behaviour that transcends misguided patriotism and embodies healthy nationalism (or the will to usher Kwangju into a new era of the world and global village), and the will to open up a new chapter of the arts. The objective of the Kwangju International Biennale is to encourage independent cultural behaviour. In other words, it is not to provide rhetoric, but a site for artistic creation, and to concentrate on the functions and essence of the arts, rather than the importance of art forms. The Kwangju International Biennale values Joseph Beuys' action of planting a tree for reforestation more than senseless popular aesthetics and spiritless artistic diversification. The Biennale is a place for discussing various possibilities, not a place for exhibiting or assessing the arts. Some biennales, however, strive to be complete in terms of art history with art museum-style exhibitions, since they are filled with pride that comes from thinking this kind of culture is superior. The Oriental culture and Oriental spirit appreciate more greatly incidental values, produced as a result of organic combination of the arts. The Kwangju International Biennale, first of all, has an exhibition structure of mutuality with the theme of "Beyond the Borders." It intends to overcome the aforementioned problems of postculture festivals, and draw the line by coming up with a clear notion of the borders. For that purpose, it is important to abandon the aesthetics of those with vested rights, and to pursue the youthful arts of the young generation. It is imperative to encourage personal characteristics, not regionalism, and to move on to the next level of general arts, not the extreme interpretation of aesthetic texts. Secondly, the Kwangju International Biennale intends to turn art into information. It is a grave mistakes for contemporary art to allow the arts to lose flexibility in terms of material, form, concreteness or abstraction, allegory or metaphysics, and avantgarde or tradition. Different names for various artistic attempts may lead to wrongful conviction of the guilt or innocence of the arts. The mutuality of the arts does not suggest reckless combination, but informative function of the arts to complement each other, regardless of the borders between notions and knowledge. Today all academic disciplines provide not only knowledge, but also information, and art and information are closely connected when deciding upon the social functions of the arts. Thirdly, the Kwangju International Biennale deals with the issue of the reciprocal and mutual functions of high-tech art. High-tech arts such as video art, computer art, laser art, and virtual reality, are often mistaken for mechanical tricks on account of the public's lack of knowledge of the technologies. High-tech art is not the idol that the Futurists worshipped in the early 20th century. It is not even art or culture, if technologies and the users are not in a complementary relationship. Unless it reaches the stage of reciprocity and interactivity, high-tech art will remain alienated high art. "Info Art," the Kwangju International Biennale's special feature, is an advanced form of communicative art for the sake of interactivity between the users and producers of high-tech art. One apparent achievement of the arts is probably the ability to record. The arts have always found a way to deal with reality. The arts, in whatever form, carry important messages as they are witnesses to historical events. We are deeply impressed by the arts, not simply because they record historical events, but because they meticulously portray the backgrounds behind them. Art's ability to deal with historical events, which was long-forgotten in the wave of modernism, must be recovered and utilised as a tool to review not just realism, but the functions of the arts as well. The spirit of the May l8th Kwangju pro-democracy movement, especially, will present an opportunity for the arts to function as witnesses to history. The issue of independence of a culture is not a matter of limited time and space, like a sports event or a world exposition. It is a matter of respect for different histories, backgrounds, and unique individual expressions based on different languages and styles. The Kwangju International Biennale is a representative of the spiritual background of the Asia-Pacific region, as well as a festival of the Korean art community. Therefore, it is a very important opportunity to introduce the spirit of the calligraphic painters and unique formative characteristics peculiar to the Orient. Calligraphic paintings are the typical genre of the bourgeois art enjoyed by men of noble birth. As their form is superior to those of Western abstraction and formalism, they prove that modernism is not necessarily the product of a scientific revolution or mature civic society. As the only divided country in the world, Korea stands in quite a unique position to view its history, different from any other country's. Korea's 20th-century history consists of a series of significant events such as thirty-six years of Japanese Colonial Rule, the Korean War, the division of the Korean Peninsula, mandate rule, military dictatorship, the Kwangju pro-democracy movement, and democratisation. Korea, a country where the war is not over_there is only an armistice agreement in place_also has a unique cultural background as a result of its rapid industrialisation and commercial capitalism. The prevalent opinion is that fluctuating borders of the arts must be included in public domain of the arts. At the end of the postculture festival, spiritless mirages only pretending to have some identity will be finally categorised into real aesthetics, with distinct and definite borders. The Kwangju International Biennale should be a place for debate that can, if possible, contribute to producing meaningful consequences of cultural behaviour, without resorting to an instigation of the people or popular aesthetics. Internationalisation, or the global village, start from a respect not for politics, race, or religion, but cultural background. Bibliography Ellen Dissanayake, What is Art For, University of Washington, 1987. Terry Barrett, Criticizing Art, Mayfield, 1994. Stephen Bann and William Allen, Interpreting Contemporary Art, Icon Editions, 1991. David Garroli, Paraesthetics, Methuen, 1987.

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