A promise is an offer of social obligation for the near future, often made with premeditated confidence and the desire for mutual fulfilment. Yet promises are liable to failure, with the potential for unforeseeable challenges to thwart the performance of one’s duties, inviting disagreement and conflict. Layne Waerea’s Free Promises explores the concept of social agreements or ‘promises’ as interpersonal practices governed by highly individual and spontaneous systems of values by giving away free promises during the opening week of the Busan Biennale 2024.

Free Promises will take place at the Museum of Contemporary Art Busan where members of the public are invited to kōrero and enter into a reasonable ‘promise’ with the artist. This ‘promise’ could include carrying out a small action, saying something, or even an agreement not to do something. Free Promises examines the fleeting and optimistic space where social promises are located, intervening upon the codified behaviour of civic spaces in metropolitan Busan. In doing so, Free Promises suggests the slippery or ultimately unreasonable nature of social promises, asking the public to reimagine the underlying social or legal transcripts at stake.

Free Promises was co-commissioned by Te Tuhi and the Busan Biennale Organizing Committee.