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Civilization- The Way We Live Now

In MMCA in Gwacheon, it is curated around the subject of ‘Civilization - The Way We Live Now ’. 135 artists participated in this exhibition. 

I heard that it had been prepared for a long time, even Bartomeu Mari Ribas, who is the head curator of MMCA, had taken the job before. The exhibition focuses on the present, in other words: it wants to show how and where we live, how to think about ourselves and our bodies etc. It is organized into 8 sections

The picture that I saw first was so familiar because it was taken in the Pergamon Museum which is located in Berlin. I used to go to the museum a lot. So It reminds me of the time I used to be there.

I think it was an interesting idea that they made it look like a Hive which is also the subject. However, the arrangement of the artworks was too dense so it was uncomfortable to see the artworks. 

Most of the artworks were of big sizes, so it was even worse. And the distance was too close between me and the works. For example, a few months before, I saw Candida Höfer’s works in the Kukjae gallery with more space around me. It made me feel totally different, even though the artwork is the same. 

Furthermore, it looks complex, so it made me feel like I don’t want to look at anything beyond this. But I like that the hall is designed in a circle and I could take a journey without a specific route. So, I felt more freedom in the space.

In the flow section, there were two pictures of Alejandro Cartagena. The first picture is about a mother standing in front of the Mexico-USA border wall and another picture is the daughter at the USA-Mexico border wall. It was a scientifically interesting artwork. Iron walls in the pictures created optical illusions, which I’m not sure the artist intended or not, but it gives me a kind of feeling as if the people behind the wall come through the obstacle.

I like the control section, there were many interesting artworks and it was well designed, especially Jason Sangik Noh’s Work was really interesting. His work ‘Biography of Cancer’ is a little bit direct which I felt at first, but something was so special, I don’t know what exactly, but I wanted to keep looking at it. And next to the work there was Carlo Valsecchi’s Technogym project series, it’s kind of weird that the picture of a gym and an OR existed together, but the harmony of both was good. So, I really liked the placement and works. Also, an interesting work was taken at the airport security of the US. Unbelievable things were seen in the picture, so I was so shocked about the forbidden items, such as a dead guinea pig.

I think they didn’t have a strong opinion of the subject in this exhibition. It’s the thing that makes the exhibition too intricate. Also, there are too many artists participating in this exhibition, so I felt like it could have been a biennale. However, it was a good chance to see many great artist’s works in a short time.

In winter, the museum closes at 5pm so I recommend going there earlier.

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Gwangju biennale

GB commission has been conceived to embody the idea of the Gwangju Democratic Movement in the art world. This is the first edition, four artist participated and prompted for democracy, human rights and peace using visual art.

I was quite lucky because I saw all the art work. There are two different time tables, so I needed to go twice to be able to see all the works. When I visited the location for the first time, I only saw Apichatpong’s work. Actually GB commission is installed in Gwangju Former Armed Forces’ Hospital which is abandoned since 2006.

The hospital was a place where civilians who were injured through torture and assault were taken to receive treatment during the May 18 pro-democracy movement. Citizens also had to suffer from being questioned by dispatched investigators during medical treatment in there. It ran until 2006 and it was a government property and recently the rights to it has been transferred to Gwangju city.

When I went there I was so scared to go inside when it was dark and everything was ruined. And suddenly the scene from the movie called Taxi Driver which describes the time of the Man 18 protest flashed at me vividly. The feeling was so strong and I couldn’t concentrate on artwork at first.

After few minutes, I got used to the place. So I could see the artwork. Apichatpong did installations. Layering light on the ruined place, it looks attractive and he introduced physical movement of mechanical objects. The objects slowly hit each other. At first, I thought they hit randomly but after I kept watching it, I knew there is a routine. His work is nice and very experimental just like his other works. I kind of like it, but for me the place was more fascinating. Harmony of place and the artwork is great. However the docent said the artist thought the place is like a parasite. This was too much information for me and felt too direct.

Mike Nelson’s work was also interesting. He brought the mirrors from the abandoned hospital and used them in the artwork. The mirrors have been there for a long time and they went through the time and experiences, so they have seen the pain and the torment of the people inside of the hospital. I was so curious about how it looks like in the church, and it wasn’t disappointing, but also not super surprising as well as kind of expected. I thought about why I wasn’t that surprised. And maybe it would be totally different feeling, if I saw the work alone.

How to perceive the artwork is dependant on the conditions you find yourself in.

When I was in Kader Attia’s art place, at first I wasn’t sure which one is art work and which one is not, because he deals with wood and it is in harmony with the place. The wood of the tree naturally develops ‘scars’ over time and the artist tried to heal them using a stapler and trying to stitch them closed. But even after trying to heal them, the scars still remain in there. Metaphorically it represents the  people who went though the time of torment and who will never be cured from it completely. It was understandable that he substituted the concept, which is traumatic experiences, to the object and the place. It was interesting.

Generally, the GB commission was a first edition. It was interesting, how to make story in the historical place by a foreign artist. It would be nice if Korean artist deal with the same place. Anyway it was great a experience.

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Gwangju biennale(1)

Gwangju is a special city for Korea’s history. It’s the fruit of modernisation. The result of the destruction of a dictatorship regime. It is the first time that I went to Gwangju and the biennale so the exhibition hall was so impressive to me because I did not expect the art hall in there to be that huge. I felt like it is bigger than any other city.

I went to the biennale exhibition gallery first, the first hall floor wasn’t my style. There is some work  that was interesting but only in terms of historical interests. I wasn’t interested in how they convert as art.

The second floor looked a bit like a mess. In front of the neon work which is the first work you can see inside the exhibition hall everyone took selfies and no one read the explanation. Even when I read it, I couldn’t understand it but there is some good art work in there.

There is one video work made by ‘Kiluanji Kia Henda’. This work describes the year 1975 when the Portuguese abandoned the city of Luanda in Angola. I really liked this work so I watched it  four times. This video kept showing the modernist buildings which is not used anymore. And it kind of shows the feeling that everyone has left the city, yet it still remains with the buildings and their traces. Borrowing his saying ‘it’s day but it seems like night’ I felt this weirdness like it existed but at the same time it’s not a real place or magical place. And in the video, I felt a distance visually and the sound of his narrative made me feel strange.

The post internet age exhibition hall was interesting, I think it is well organised as well. Especially young Korean artists’ works. Heecheon Kim’s work ‘mesher’ deals with video games and digital mapping: what physical imprints do to our bodies and how they leave as we move through immateriality and how to represent our bodies’ invisibility and even when I played the game, I have never thought about these kind of things, so it was impressive to me. Also Ayoung Kim’s work is interesting, I actually saw same work before in another exhibition, but at that time there was only a video. This time she did some installation and variation of displays, so for me it was better than last time.

Sun Woo Hoon’s work ‘The Flat is Political’ is also interesting. He created digital images and it shows historical moments in 2017 and 2018 in Korea. Like his title ‘The flat is the most political’, the work was easily understandable, and I felt what situation he drew directly. But he wrote something more deeply about his work which I couldn’t get.

This year, the exhibition was organised by Curator SunJung Kim. She was focused on how the Gwangju Biennale is going to be unique and actually, she didn’t have enough time so she broke a mould of traditional ways and comported with 11 other curators. So there are a lot of topics which might feel a little bit messy. In my point of view, I think even though too many different sections exist, I felt it’s quite well designed and I like each section’s uniqueness. Moreover, the biennial is clearly identifiable and shows specialty’s of gwangju. Making what can be done in the city and its necessary things works as the substance of the biennale.

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Daegu Biennale(modifying)

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Ungmang 엉망

엉망이라는 전시제목이 일단 눈에 끌었다. 전시에 들어가기전에 눈에보이는 전시장 외벽에 설치 되어있는 대형 포스터. 일민 이라는 장소적 특수성(시청역 한복판)과 엉망이라는 단어와의 묘한 공존이 눈길을 가장 먼저 끌었다.

엉망은 모든 것을 수집하는 작가 sasa의 개인전이다.작가가 20년 가까이 모아온 물건들과 자신만의 방식으로 자신의 행동을 분석한다. 작업을 보면서, 편집증적 작가를 보면서 그의 병적 형태가 예술이라는 형태로 승화되어 나타난다는 점이 흥미롭다.

신발 수집부터, 자신이 사 먹었던 음식들을 스스로 기록하고 수집하고 분석한다.

재미있었던 것은 작가가 분석하고 그것을 책으로 만든 것을 보고 앞서 보고있던 두명의 관람객이 미친 사람아니냐고 이야기를 했다. 보면서 작가에게 편집증과 강박이 있진 않을까라고 생각했었는데. 그의 병적 형태가 예술이라는 형태로 승화되어 나타난다는 점이 인상깊다.

행동 분석적 관점으로 봐서 사람들이 스스로 자신을 분석할수있는 스캐너 데이터를 통해서 자신이 뭘 좋아하는지 분석할수있는 형태의 프로그램이 나왔으면 좋겠다.라는 생각이 잠깐 들면서도 그런 것이 생기면 무섭겠다 라는 생각이 들기도 했다.

전시장 내부는 매우 키치한 형태로 꾸며져있다. 벽에 적힌 ’please don’t touch’ ’daijobu daijobu-괜찮아’라는 두가지의 문장이 나에게는 상반된 형태로 와 닿았다.

전시장 중간에는 네대의 모니터에 영화 혹은 이름모를 동영상들이 재생되고있었는데. 모니터 바로앞에 걸려있는 ‘그냥’이라고 적힌 포스터가 말하듯 아무 이유없이 그냥 설치한 것 같았다.

다른 벽쪽에는 자신의 엑스들에 대한 이야기가 있었는데 참 tmi라고 생각이 들면서도 그 tmi가주는 아이러니한 즐거움을 잘 꼬집어 낸거 같았다, 하지만 결국에 인상에 남는것은 짜장면과 신발들.

2층에는 투피엠부터 아웃사이더의 외톨이까지 2000년대의 대중 가요들이 믹스된 상태로 흘러나오고 있었다. 10년동안 작가가 모은 병들이 진열되어있었다. 처음 든 생각은 이 모든 것을 수용할만한 작업실이 있다는 것에 놀라웠다. 또한 전시공간이 굉장히 흥미로웠는데, 진열장과 관람석사이에 꽤 넓은 빈공간이 존재했는데. 그곳에서 진열된 제품들이나 돗자리를 깔고 술 먹으면서 오래 머물고 싶다라는 생각이 듦과 동시에. 전시장에서 술을 먹을수 있을까? 그것이 퍼포먼스나 예술로 승화된 형태로 표현될수 있을까라는 생각이 문득 나를 스쳐갔다.

모두 재활용 해서 새로운 형태의 모습으로 태어나야 할 것같은 병들이 그들의 본 모습그대로 전시장에 전시되면서 새로운 가치를 얻는다. 의미 없던 물건들에게서 의미를 찾으려고 계속 생각한다. 계속 반복되는 병들을 보면, 무의미하게 내가 소비하는 것들에 대해서 생각이 났다.

엉망 전은 여러모로 나에게 신선하게 다가왔다. 엉망이라는 단어를 직접적으로 사용하는 것부터 공간의 조화와 작업들 심지어 작가의 이름까지도 말이다.아직 안 본사람들이 있다면 꼭 추천해주고 싶다 ;)

the title ‘mess’ attracted me at first. You can see a big poster which is installed on the outer facade, which I was interested in at first glance, because of Ilmin’s location. the museum is located in the middle of Seoul and everyone who lives or works in there seems to be too busy. the poster and the place existing together in one spot makes me feel odd just like how the feature of the museum’s location and the word ‘mess’ exists together. it’s a strange coexistence.  

It is sasa’s solo exhibition, who has collected his spending for more than 20 years and analysed himself. Seeing his work, it is interesting that his pathological form was sublimated into the form of art. From collecting shoes to analysing the foods he ate everyday.

From a behavioural analysis' perspective, I hope people will come up with a program that can analyse what they like through scanned data. It will help people but on the other hand it is scary because of the capability of perspective concerning my behaviour.

The inside of the exhibition hall was decorated in a very kitsch manner. The two sentences on the wall ‘please don’t touch’ and ‘daijobu daijobu’ reached me in opposite forms.

In the middle of the exhibition hall, there were four monitors that were playing random movies. some of them were familiar and some of them were not. There is a poster which had "just” written on the front of the monitor. It seemed to have been installed for no reason.

On the other wall, something was written about a story of his ex, which I thought is unnecessary information, hence it gave me an ironical pleasure.

When I first saw the second floor, I was excited. Mixed Kpop songs of the 2000s were playing and collected bottles by the artist throughout a span of 10 years were on display. The first thought that came to mind was that it is surprising that he has a space to accommodate all of that. Because it was a big amount! The exhibition space was very interesting. It was dark and from the entrance to the showcase it is quite far, there is a wide empty space between the two of them. So I needed to go forward through the darkness. I thought it would be nice if is possible to sit down and drink in there. It could be expressed in a form that was sublimated to performance. That thought suddenly flashed across me.

Bottles that all seem to need to be recycled and born into a new type of shape and get the new value of existing got the new value as they are displayed in the showcase. I kept thinking about finding the meaning of things which are meaningless.  Watching those bottles again and again, I thought about spending pointlessly and it was scaring me. This is only a person's amount of abandoning things but there is a massive population living on earth and no one is too different from him and suddenly Vik Muniz' works came to my mind.

The exhibition 'Mess' was fresh to me in many ways such as the title, harmony of place and the identified artist’s name. It’s humorous enough and reflects the spirit of time and age well. If someone who has not seen it yet, I would definitely recommend this ;)

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Busan Biennale

부산비엔날레를 보기위해 부산에 다녀왔다. 38년째 이어지고 있다고 했는데 막상 나는 처음으로 부산비엔날레를 보게되었다. 이번 전시의 타이틀은 ‘비록떨어져있어도’이며, Jörg Heiser가 큐레이팅을 Cristina Ricupero가 감독을 맡았다고 한다. 이번 전시는 부산현대미술관 구 한국은행지점에서 나누어서 진행하였다.

처음으로 다녀온 곳은 구 한국은행 전시관이다. 전시공간은 3개의 층으로 나누어져있었고 과거 은행의 모습을 많이 보존하고 있어서 전시공간으로써 색다른 매력을 가지고 있었다. 특히 일층의 전시 구성은 공간과 잘 어울러진 느낌이 많이들었다. 특히 처음마주하는 작업은 4개의 큰 스크린으로 구성되는데 그것들이 독자적인 공간을 만들어서 작업의 몰입도를 한층 높여주었다. 네개의 장면은 비슷하면서도 다른 장면들을 보여주는데. ���억에 남는 장면은 엘리베이터가 내려가고 올라가는 장면이 반복되는데 마치 내가 엘레베이터 안에서 누군가를 관찰하고있는 느낌이 들기도했다.

일층에서 가장 마음에 들었던 작업은 임영주의 작업이다. 얼마전에 두산갤러리에서 개인전을 했던 작가이기도 한데 그녀는 두가지의 다른 요소를 오버랩하여 보여준다. 사실 작가가 이야기하고자하는 것을 거의 알아듣지 못한 것같다. 그럼에도 불구하고 이 작업에서 흥미로웠던 점은 여러가지의 질문들이 이 영상을 다보고 난후 떠올랐다는 점이다. 관계에 대한 질문이나 해석의 차이에 대한 고민. 특히 가까워지는 남북관계에 대한 막연한 기대감만 가지고 있던 나에게 북한은 아직도 미지의 세계라는 점을 다시한번 알려주는 것같았다.

이작업을 특별하게 만드는 요소에는 전시공간도 한몫을 했는데, 전시공간이 은행의 모습을 많이 간직하고 있었는데, 특히 임영주씨의 작업은 금고였던 공간에서 전시가 되었으며 그곳에 들어가기전에 통제사인이나 금고 문이 그대로 보존되고 있어서 공간과 작업간의 조화가 개인적으로 인상이 깊었다.

이번 전시에서 가장 좋았던 작업은 단연! Phil collins의 작업이다. 그는 그가 생각하는 미래의 인공해변을 전시장에 재현하였는데, 디스토피아적인 부분을 잘 보여주고 있다. 마치 쓰레기더미에 덮여버린 인공해변과 미래공상적 애니미를 함께 배치하고 냄새를 입혀줌으로써 보는 사람으로금 두려움을 자아낸다. 작업을 끝까지 보고싶었는데 냄새가 너무 나는 나머지 전시공간에서 오래 버티지 못했다. 조금 아쉬웠던 점은, 전시공간이 너무 어두운 나머지 작품을 제대로 감상하기가 힘들었다는 점이다. 다른 곳에서 전시한 사진들을 찾아봤는데 대부분 부산비엔날레에서 전시한거보다는 조금 밝게 전시한 것 같았다.

Phil collins작업 하나만으로도 가볼 가치가 100프로 있는 부산비엔날레 전시공간 특성상 동선이 불편한 점이 있었지만 나름 흥미로운 전시였다.

I went to Busan for seeing this exhibition. It has been held for 38 years. However, it is my first time to visit the exhibition. It is titled ‘Divided We Stand’ and curated by Jörg Heiser and Cristina Ricupero. The exhibitions are located in The Museum of Contemporary Art Busan and The Former Bank of Korea in Busan.

Where I went first is The Former Bank of Korea in Busan. The exhibition halls are divided into three floors. I like the division of place in the first floor. I think the first floor was well divided into sections for each artwork and they were worked well together. Especially the first work consists of 4 big screens and they are made into an independent small place on the first floor. By making a small space, it heightens an immersion. The screens show similar scenes each such as showing elevators going up and down together. It makes me feel like observing someone in the screen.

I like Young Joo Lim’s work. Normally she finds similarity in two disparate elements. In this work, it overlaps two things which are a supernova and the perception of misunderstanding or overinterpretation. I barely understood what she wants from the video. However after watching the video.

Some question came up in me and makes me think about things such as relationships, why and how people interpret differently and so on. Also nowadays the relationship between North and South seems to get closer. However, we still don’t know well about North like the universe. I think making an audience think is an important thing. The space was really interesting. It used to be used as a bank’s vault. And the special door and the sign of control remain.(For work info -> http://2018.busanbiennale.org/project/065)

the best work in this place was Phil Collins ‘Delete Beach!!!!’ It’s worth to go Busan to see the work. His work tells us that it is totally different seeing work as a photography and seeing work in real life. It’s like MICHELIN 3stars! It is a simple idea but remarkable. He made like the sea in the future.

He made an imaginary beach in the future. It is comprised of color, sound, rubbers, tires, liquid pools and lights. Talking about environmental problems and dystopia. Putting anime creates more dramatic emotions. It’s shocking to me I wanted to watch the work completely but the smell was incredibly bad. I couldn’t stand in there for a long time even I tried to put my perfume on my cardigan and tried to see again. One unfortunate thing is that the place was too dark for me. I couldn’t see and it would better if there is more light. When I searched other places which had exhibited the same work, It had been lighter than there.

Even if the circulation wasn’t good because of the characteristics of place, It is worth to go there for seeing Phil Collins’s work!