Part 2 - LA84 Foundation

Second, the festival was marred by the
deep-rooted sectional antagonism
among the local artistic circles in the
process of implementing its programs.
An outstanding instance was the discord
about the Olympiad of Art. When the
SLOOC announced a list of artists to
be invited to the Olympiad of Art,
some local artists strongly protested
and campaigned for the nullification of
the list.
The SLOOC hurriedly held the Korean
Contemporary Arts Festival which was
not originally included in the festival
programs, and twice increased the
Korean members of the Steering Committee
of the Olympiad of Art as well
as the number of the Korean artists to
be invited to the international exhibitions.
There were minor controversies
as to several programs of Korean folklore
with distinct religious backgrounds.
Some religious groups protested that
those programs favored specific
religions. As a result, some programs
were either altered or cancelled.
Third, a lack of efficient manpower
resulted in an imperfect operation of
the festival, although the experience
gained during the Arts Festival of the
1986 Asian Games proved a great
asset. The selection and invitation of
foreign performing groups, individual,
artists and scholars were commissioned
to foreign agents under contracts, but
a lack of organic contacts between the
Korean host organizations and the
foreign agents often caused confusion
as the participants changed their visit
schedule without giving prior notice.
Assessed from an overall point of view,
the Seoul Olympic Arts Festival needs
to be duly recognized for providing a
major impetus to raise Korea's artistic
standards. It is also noteworthy that
the festival sought to combine the
Olympic Games with academism by
including the World Academic Conference
which dealt with a wide range
of subjects other than sports.
72
73
72. The International Contemporary
Painting Exhibition at the National
Museum of Contemporary Art.
73. 'Pinnacle,' a contribution by
Chechoslovakian Josef Jankovic to the
Sculpture Park.
74. Madangnori is performed in the open
air at the Seoul Nori Madang.
74