Sinan-gun Signs MOU with Casco to Promote Global Island Culture and Arts

Strengthening the International Network of Island Culture and Arts in 1004 Island Sinan

Shinan County signed a memorandum of understanding with CASCO ART INSTITUTE on the 9th to promote island culture and arts in the early globalization era. (Photo by Shinan County)

[Asia Economy Honam Reporting Headquarters Reporter Seo Young-seo] Sinan-gun, Jeollanam-do (Governor Park Woo-ryang) announced that on the 9th, it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with CASCO ART INSTITUTE (Director Choi Bit-na) at the Sinan-gun Office video conference room to promote island culture and arts in the era of early globalization.

With this, Sinan-gun will accelerate the project to build an island cultural diversity network by leveraging CASCO Art Institute’s transnational network, and will strive to develop and establish cultural and artistic programs that connect countries and islands with each other.

Founded in 1990 in Utrecht, the Netherlands, as an independent non-profit art institution, CASCO is a contemporary art institution actively playing a role in the development of international society’s art based on the concept of ‘commons’ (shared resources or common goods).

From 2009 to early 2012, CASCO executed its first long-term convergence project, the ‘Great Housework Revolution,’ a project experimenting with trends in home, housework, village community changes, and the possibilities of cooperative collective activities.

This project, involving over 100 local, domestic, and international artists, designers, theorists, houseworkers, labor unions, and activists, held traveling exhibitions in London, Derry (Northern Ireland), Ljubljana (Slovenia), Stockholm (Sweden), and other locations.

Supported by the European Cultural Foundation and the European Union (EU) cultural program, CASCO operated a network ‘cluster’ with six similar institutions within Europe, and was later shortlisted for the Art Institution of the Year award by the Dutch Art Critics Association.

In 2013, in partnership with the Dutch lottery funds ‘DOEN’ and the ‘HIVOS’ foundation, CASCO operated ‘Arts Collaboratory,’ a financial support program and network for over 20 non-Western art institutions, and carried out network innovation work in 2015 and 2016.

Currently, CASCO is conducting the ‘Traveling Farm Museum of Lost Techniques’ project.

Director Choi Bit-na, who took office as the third director of CASCO in 2008, is the only Korean director in overseas art institutions. After completing a training course at ‘De Appel,’ a globally renowned curator education institution in the Netherlands, she participated as a curator in the 2016 Gwangju Biennale.

Through this agreement, Sinan-gun has made it possible to develop a new platform that connects artistic activities, art production, and collections on Sinan’s islands and overseas islands, and has created an opportunity to serve as a catalyst for establishing an island cultural diversity network center, including international cooperative exhibitions, island culture and arts academies, and joining UNESCO Creative Cities.

Governor Park Woo-ryang said, “In the post-COVID era, cultural and artistic activities have been shrinking and facing many difficulties, but if we build an international network, it can have a positive effect on revitalizing the culture and arts sector centered on islands, along with Sinan-gun’s key project, the ‘1 Island 1 Museum’ project.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.