Mary Art Project

O'NewWall

2011-12-21T07:33:00.000Z

MANY OF you might wonder and think, where is Mary? What is she up to? Well, I am alive still in Jeju making more plans for next year what to show in art world. Living as an independent curator is not such an easy thing, but it's also quite adventurous as you can tell if you follow where I am about these days. I am still travelling around mainly between Jeju and Seoul these days, but sometimes in Europe, too.

So, this year I planned to have only two things: One-the residency at Raumars in Rauma, Finland and Two-the residency at Gasiri Creation Center in Gasiri, Jeju, Korea. The plan expanded to the residency at Polymer Culture Factory in Tallinn, Estonia, visiting Venice Biennale, Dublin Contemporary, and helping space O'NewWall to connect with international curators who visited Gwangju for the3rd curator's course. I don't know all of you, but I appreciate some of you who contacted me or visited space O'NewWall and say hello to let us know what you are interested in.

Well, I have been working independently in the name of 'Mary Art Project' but as you know I have been collaborating and helping my friend, Juno Seo's space in Seoul. He wanted to collaborate with international curators, who are interested in Korean art scene. His idea is a bit different from mine towards curating, however, we consented to collaborate and expand our curating realm broader in many aspects.

Opening of space O'NewWall

He has been interested in getting involved in the Korean society with art and curating with strong theme to speak up about it. One of his recent curatorial work is 'Peace like River' which is twisting the huge project by Korean government on four big rivers in Korea.

You can tell his curatorial view is quite different from mine, but both of us agree that we need a good platform for young curators who want to show their ideas without thinking too much about other obstacles from our surroundings.

Recently many alternative spaces and non profit art spaces closed down in Korea. Last month, Space Bandi in Busan finally closed, too. A lot of independent curators now face to 'Nowhere to exhibit'. Many art galleries say art market has come down again in Korea after the heat of market has gone. Getting national grants is too competitive to get even a small one these days. Yet, what is so real? Are these really creeping under your skin? Or is this just about rumors and surface?

All the plannings for 2012 is still going on. A lot of deadlines for public grants were last week. I have applied for several, too. While I was applying for these grants, I was thinking that I needed more inspiring ideas to plan better exhibitions. O'NewWall has such a small space, therefore it needs such a strong impact and concentration in a show. If you visit Seoul, come and visit O'NewWall. They will have a new wall for your creative ideas if you are a curator who has got nothing but passion.

Dublin Contemporary

2011-09-19T09:16:00.001+01:00

DUBLIN CONTEMPORARY has been mentioned many times when I visited Ireland since 2009. Many people in the art scene in Ireland had talked about it or mentioned it at least briefly whenever some kind of questions raised up about the fact that the social economy has gone far down, and some significant amount of tax will be spent for this giant exhibition in Ireland. Well, that was initial concern of everyone whom I have talked to about this show from the first place. Ireland, indeed, is suffering from blames and blames from many people about wrong handling of the whole country in terms of their economy. The exhibition, however, keeps going on their own track with the ironic theme of Terrible Beauty—Art, Crisis, Change & The Office of Non-Compliance.

Entrance of Dublin Contemporary at Earlsfort Terrace

Finally I went to see this show. The first artistic director, Rachel Thomas was gone, but two Chilean curators, Jota Castro and Christian Viveros-Fauné were in charge of DC. This also have been another issue that people have kept talking about :why Chilean curators? According to the history of Dublin Contemporary on their website,

Thomas held the position of Artistic Director, on secondment from The Irish Museum of Modern Art, for the formative period of the project from February 2010 until January 2011. Thomas returned to IMMA to take up new projects after her secondment.

Therefore, I believe so!

Now, I want to talk about some interesting artwork I have seen in the show. The best thing I love the most was David Yi's squid with ink. What a fantastic idea! It just looks like a fish market where people, auction, sales, sounds, visual effect of fish going on, but the exhibition space with this huge squid gave such a different atmosphere within the context even with the ink or some salt water coming out from it.

All the room at Earlsfort Terrace were not repaired. The space shows as it was, so this squid looks as if it was laying on the ground as bare foot walking on the street, which I think makes sense in many ways. However, it was not the best way to show for other works sometimes. It's debatable.

Dublin Contemporary is meaningful in terms of gathering all art scenes in Ireland into one period of art festival. A lot of artists, curators, collectors gather at the same time and support art through DC. It gives such a big strength for the art society in Ireland.

DC might need more unique characteristics, though. There are so many biennial exhibitions in the world. As an art festival, each city put different reasons why they need one. Why does Dublin need one as well? It might need more research on this in advance.

a contemporary art exhibition in Jeju

2011-08-27T10:21:00.000+01:00

JEJU, HAVE YOU HEARD of this island? Moreover, Gasiri! Have you heard this place before? This huge area of Gasiri is developing crazy amount of facilities for arts these days. Yet, I am indeed living middle of nowhere, nothing very different from Rauma where I used to live before in Finland. Living in the middle of nowhere doesn't mean, however, I cannot see any contemporary art exhibition, because it's pretty much everywhere even in this remote island.

Jeju Museum of Contemporary Art

Charles Jang's 'CHARACTERHOLIC' at Gallery Nori was one of the exhibitions I visited here in Jeju. Gallery Nori is located right next to the Jeju museum of contemporary art. It takes about an hour for me to get there from where I live now. Yet, I visit this area quite often now since there is a huge artists' town with full of contemporary artists living and working in this town whose name is Jeoji Artists Village.

Charles Jang's 'Characterholic' at Gallery Nori

Jang's work penetrates this whole town with young vibe and twist of felicity towards characters which we are obsessed to. His studied painting at Yongin University, but he is also famous for being a graffiti competition award winner. Since his background is graffiti, a lot of his work overlaps between graffiti and traditional painting. Well, graffiti is a kind of traditional painting, too, as we can find it even in old days such as the one in Efes, Turkey. His work is about characters. A lot of characters appear in his series. Some of them are the "President of Children" in Korea, Pororo. What would it mean? He covered this "President" with black enamel ink and hang on a wood, as if some sort of execution is happening in the gallery, however, it's a bit subtle to recognize at first sight. Perhaps, his intention to be hiding some device behind.

Pyoseon Haevichi Beach

Jeju has bee on issue these days since a lot of artists are coming in and settling down in the island, however, they didn't focus on 'young' artists, since a lot of young artists from Jeju now live in Seoul, the capital city of Korea. Perhaps, that is the power of capital city, but the story has been changed recently. Food has been the main interest for many people in the world. Finding organic food is one of the essential activities for all humans now. Additionally, Jeju gives such an exotic atmosphere with green grass gardens, emerald-color beaches which most of us dream of after suffering from pollution of city life's exhausting life style. Even citizens are trying to find their own quiet space in their own city. Gigantic size and amount of coffee shops or cafes can tell you all about it.

Would you move to Jeju? On this question, many artists answered that there is not enough infrastructure for artists to work with, such as facilities for printings, frames, etc. Can internet get over this problem completely? After the internet era, Jeju has been completely different compared to the previous analog society, but this is not a complete resolution for artists who need to work in first hand with their bare eyes rather than looking at the screens to check the quality of the materials they might use.

Would more 'young' contemporary art come to Jeju as much as all these new settlers from mainland? I am looking forward to seeing Jeju 10 years later with amazing amount of arts and galleries.

Seongsan SunRisePeak

Typical Jeju Road with trees

Copyright: Do people know it exists?

2011-07-28T03:42:00.000+01:00

RECENTLY, I have been interested in intellectual law, especially about copyright. Here is a conversation with an artist, of course with some fiction added.

"Hey, I saw your painting on TV the other day. It was some kind of a soap opera, you know Korea is full of TV drama these days."
"Really? What painting?"
"Your painting, you know your work!"
"Perhaps, some painting I have sold a long time ago."
"Didn't you know that painting will be broadcasting?"
"No, well, it was purchased by a bank, perhaps someone rented it from the bank."
"What was the condition for sales?"
"I don't know, I just signed whatever the contract they gave me."
"Hmmmm......"

The beginning of the copyright could have started to prevent rival competitors or to offer bounty for artists to support their next production in early stage, about 1500s. However, I believe this function subsists.

In Korean copyright law, there is no specific category for curating, yet this issue related to debate on copying a curating idea has occurred in the past. It's not only about artists' artwork and their copyright, but also about curators' curating and 'our' copyright.

I haven't seen any long contract which includes the date of possible exhibition in public days out of year, allowance for rent or lease, or responsibility of keeping artwork in a safe condition yet in Korea. Most of the case, the sale contract was just as short as one page which says who bought whose what, sometimes even shorter than a shopping receipt from a supermarket. This seems that people usually forget that purchasing an artwork includes a lot of rights; copyright, consumers' right, as well as dealers' right.

Several years ago, Bugslife lost a big time against all the musicians in Korea about distributing music source for free. Now we all know that we pay for musicians' effort to create such a music we listen to. Youtube is another story, though. Yes. as Tim Wu mentioned, everyone hates copyright in 21st century, yet Korean art scene is not aware of this copyright yet, but it might be imminent to recognize soon in the market, since they believe they are in the center of capitalism in the world.

La Biennale di Venezia

2011-06-28T15:16:00.001+01:00

Why everyone comes to see La Biennale di Venezia? Well, I am one of them, but I still don't know the reason, except I can go on an art drug for a short term, then leave such a hectic floating city as soon as possible after overdose of this art drug. I still love Venice and love La Biennale.
Is this question toward the Venice Biennale quite boring since many already questioned before about the meaning or significance of all the biennial art events in the world? Yet this was one of the main questions I had while I was in Venice this time again. Why do people come to see any biennale?

Among those thousands of exhibitions, I chose to see something not major but more interesting, such as Modernikon, whose participants are mainly Russian artists, or Anton Ginzburg, Estonia Pavilion, Luxembourg Pavilion, Taiwan Pavilion, ...... Yes, it was Montenegro which focused on performance art and its archiving.

More than anything, the fact that the exhibition itself had such a good structure in terms of choosing artwork which goes through the main theme, Illumination, was such a great success.

It was quite awkward to bump into those new pavilions as a continuous path of Arsenale part, yet it was great to see new pavilions participating this year.

On the other hand, it was fun to imagine how much arts fund from each country would be in these shows. Did we really pay tax to see these works at our countries? Each country has such a different choice for their pavilion as well as for their after parties.
It was a fun short art drug on a floating city, indeed.

the end of no-smoking indoor?

2011-05-26T17:03:00.001+01:00

Erki Kasemets showed thousands of cigarette packs in Tallinn. His exhibition is also called Tallinn 2011. The whole installation was full of cigarette packs, but it has different surfaces with it. Most of them were opened and resealed by cellular tapes which seem a little bit like those tax stamps he collected as well. Tax stamps on the cigarettes are quite similar to those post stamps or any kind of fee stamps, yet these stamps on cigarettes packs might mean that you are buying 'the right to smoke'.

Installation View from outside

I haven't thought about the word, Soviet so much before I came to Estonia. Here, everything or everyone seems like talking about Soviet as an adjective. In his explanation about his work, he also mentioned 'exotic post-soviet', well is everything pre-soviet and post-soviet in this area? Of course, they also talk about 'former west people', which I think I am also part of it, since I am from South Korea.

Installation View on the ground floor

Because of this 'former west' standard, cigarettes packs might have to change their faces according to the EU regulations, I guess. Perhaps, that's is why some of the cigarettes packs in the installation have been half-painted with some neutral color on them.

Detail of the installation

Artist's Talk

Performance

I just left the performance at the very beginning of it, because of amount of smoke in the space, yet it was such an interesting beginning with talking about regulations from an actor who is pretending he is a manager of the theater and he was smoking at the same time. The performance showed the imaginary end of no-smoking indoor era, perhaps.

Exhibition Information
Erki Kasemets
Tallinn2011
Hobusepea Galerii
25 May- 6June, 2011

Distance Making & Reducing

2011-03-25T18:34:00.000Z

Mary Art Project curated an exhibition in Finland.

Distance Making & Reducing

Marianne Csaky (Hungary), Roxana Manouchehri (Iran/Ireland), Aurinna Marstio (Finland/UK), Gigi Scaria (India), Kiwoun Shin (Korea/UK), Heikki Takala (Finland) and Tiina Vehkaperä (Finland).

Galleria 3H+K, Maaherrankatu 32, Pori, 2nd – 24th April 2011
Opening 1st April at 6-8 pm.

This exhibition was proposed by me when I applied for the residency at Raumars. Since then, I developed my theme through several research on different culture, different material, different ideologies, as well as physical distance human being creates. While I stay in Finland, I also contacted with local artists who are participating in the exhibition as well under the theme of Distance Making & Reducing.

In this exhibition, there will be several video works by Csaky, Scaria, and Shin, those who went through National Studios of Changdong in Korea as well as Manouchehri who focuses on the gap between Persian tradition and modern life we live in. Csaky’s video Delete shows the way of deleting memories, and Shin’s series of grinding shows the process of this deleting or disappearing. Shin also participates Design Museum’s exhibition Korean design in Helsinki.

Many of Scaria’s videos also show the contrast, especially social and architectural structures in his videos. Vehkaperä’s installation physically proves this contrast between two different distances when you try to look at yourself through her work. Takala’s sound project gives you this two different distances into more meditative and surreal level of ordinary life and its sound he creates or records. Marstio's dress pattern paper work shows the different aesthetics of using the same material in a sculptural way. A lot of her works are also related to nostalgia, which is a huge distance about our time, the past, when we have lived already.

The distance human being makes is amazing. Not just about physical distance, but mental distance as well as emotional distance. This distance sometimes creates such a huge misunderstanding of what the other side is or has. In many cases, artists are trying to reduce this distance through their artwork, however, you sometimes have to create your own distance to look things better especially for a proper perspective towards a certain thing.

Associated with the exhibition, there will be artists' lectures at Rauma city library on 6th, 13th, and 20th April, 2011. As a collaboration with the exhibition, Kiwoun Shin's video work Reality Test will be shown at STX Finland Ltd, Rauma shipyard. The exhibition is supported by Arts Council Korea and STX Finland Oy, Rauma shipyard. Thanks to Tekniset Mäntynen , Pori Art Museum, Rauma Art Museum and Raumars A-i-R.

Eco Art at Pori Art Museum

2011-02-24T10:04:00.001Z

PORI OF FINLAND is famous for its jazz festival. And right in front of this island where this jazz festival is held, there is an art museum. Pori Art Museum opened an eco art exhibition called 'eco ars'.

The first impression I had from this view was 'too many texts' on the wall. (So, I am not putting those texts here.) I was wondering if this exhibition was specially organized for those who can read only big texts, yet I had to hold my question for awhile since I didn't want to be rude to say anything about the exhibition imprudently. However, soon I realized that all the texts on the wall was for children or senior citizen who will visit this museum quite often. These were mainly in this pedagogic reason.

Since I recognize things through my past, when I saw the video of "Spiral Jetty" shot from the helicopter, I just thought of the class I took at the art school about Site specific art in America. Things are linked in an interesting connection: Finland, Ecology, Site specific art, America, and children or senior citizen who will visit the show.

artificial but natural

2011-02-01T16:43:00.002Z

ANOTHER CHAPTER of Mary Art Project started being written in Finland today. Hei, hei! Hyvää, hyvää! I went to Rauma Art Museum and found an interesting work by IC-98.

Installation View: Purnu 2011, Orivesi, Finland, 2010 (Colony with Aimo Tukiainen's sculpture Profit (1952)

Well, at first I just went to see people who work there and tried to say hello in the office, then went to see the exhibition 'Middle of Nowhere'. I got fascinated by this digital animation by IC-98. It seemed natural, but I imagine they must have been done in a super fake way-I mean natural looking thing must be all done by human drawing or painting. It couldn't be more than natural but it's all done by human. Sometimes this scares me-the power or ability of human creation. I thought about a Korean garden 'Seongrakwon' which is also man-made garden looking super natural. Not many people can imagine a little hill at front is the stack of dirt from the garden dug by man which is hidden behind. What about Jusanji in Cheongsong, Korea? Jusanji has such a beautiful natural scene, yet it's man-made lake.

Then, IC-98's 'Colony'? Take a look this video if you didn't see the exhibition. I am sure this has much less impact than the real exhibition space's presentation, but when I saw this work today, it reminded me of all these artificial-but-natural places.

an Art Museum in front of your home

2011-01-26T10:02:00.002Z

WHERE DO you live? My parents live right in front of the city museum of art in my hometown. Interestingly, they wouldn't go to see the exhibition unless I go with them. Of course, I encourage them to go there by themselves, but they would say it would be just an exercise not art appreciation without me. Perhaps yes, perhaps no.

Digital Moon by Kyungho Lee, interactive installation, 1993-

So, we went for a walk to the museum today. 'Media's Garden' was the title of the exhibition we saw today. The exhibition had a lot of interactive media art which was quite unique and interesting as well as a new challenge as a form of art, yet sounds old issue to be art.

water shadow four seasons by Chang-kyum Kim, Video Installation, 14 min, 2006-7

Water shadow four seasons by Chang-kyum Kim was very meditative. The video itself had such an meditative atmosphere because of natural elements in it, but also the way it has been installed was very nice and soothing for the audience who come in and out the space where it was installed with grass-looking environtment with a huge stone-looking basin.

Perhaps, it was just a walk to the museum, not any art appreciation. However, it comes to the end of this kind of review what I have seen there, whether I want or not. Occupational disease?

2nd Former West Research Congress, On Horizon: Art and Political Imagination

2011-01-26T09:45:00.000Z

DO YOU remember the day before your first school field trip? It was a bit like that, strangely. Perhaps, because I was going to see my Gwangju 'summer camp' friends here in Istanbul during the conference. I happened to know about this conference because Arzu Yayntas, one of the curators for Antakya Biennial told me to register, since I would be visiting Istanbul anyway. After all, I, again, realized a lot of people in art scene are quite connected, (surprise, surprise) now I am writing about this experience of participating in this 'congress' with many scholars, artists, curators, and intellectuals.
The first day started with Maria Hlavajova(the director of BAK)'s greetings. Of course, a lot of thanks, remarks, but importantly, there was a live streaming video online which you can watch even though you are not here in Istanbul.

     I am not going to talk about any content of this congress but this live streaming video you can watch online. This was quite a bit like the congress in Korea. There is a TV channel called congress TV which is a cable TV channel, but this shows not only the live streaming show of congress but also many other information we can get. I thought, at first, we can give so much influence on the congress if we can watch them, what they are doing, what they talk about, discuss, etc, but this wasn't what is happening, but I'd rather not give any attention on this channel.
    Honesty or bluntness gives such an unauthorized atmosphere, which is a part of psycological current we might get when we get this honest information through live streaming video, which can be the most clear thing but also which cannot be denied to be twisted some way.
    Things we see online can be super real and unreal. It also depends on what we believe and what we don't believe. Additionally, being inside of this live steaming video was like being inside of Truman show. Even though I am asking a question of what I want to ask, it still meant nothing but inside of the live streaming video. Of course, it is not, but it is in some way, amazingly.

Birth of community through art of cooking

2010-09-16T09:26:00.000+01:00

Sometimes you have to cook for the guests you didn't expect to visit you at all. If they are twenty of them not just one person, you might be in panic for a while when you first hear that there will be twenty of the guests coming to your house in two hours.
     This will give a huge urgent 'emergency call' for all your friends who can give you a hand at least. This 'emergency call' might work very well, since anyone can at least 'stir' , 'wash', 'chop' ,'decorate' or even 'clean up'. The power of 'all together' seems much bigger than what we expect, especially when we come to this emergency cooking situation.
     I remember that I went to volunteer to feed those who cannot move around freely because of their body condition or old age, etc. All I did was washing up all the plates, but because there were other people who were cooking, delievering food, cleaning the floor, etc. I could focus on only washing up. It was, yes, miracle.
    The power people can create through any collaboration is amazing to me. This applies to cooking as well. Alternative cooking is interesting in terms of collaboration. The sense of community is born out of this cooking situation. Perhaps, that's why one of the reasons Korean people are obssessed to eating together. A lot of people I meet always say 'let's eat together some time soon'. This means while we eat together we create our own relation through this action-eating together. It has some amazing effect, for example, after having luncheon with a president of a company, some bids can make it as a typical successful story.
     Eating together is a power building, then cooking together is more about sharing our thoughts and experiences. In the kitchen, people create their own connection with one another while the food is being cooked. This is more about letting out, more about catharsis, more sensitive. The experience of eating out or eating together also gives the alliance, but this is quite different than the alliance from the kitchen where all the process is being made.
     Perhaps, this is why I focus on the process of cooking, talking, sharing, rather than just eating together itself, because I would like to build a little big deeper alliance through the long effort of cooking.
     Talking about building a community, outreach program, public art, or relation between art and audience makes me think 'cooking' is the most artistic thing at the moment.

Gruenrekorder in Seoul

2010-09-10T12:54:00.001+01:00

I had been quite busy to manage several things in August. I was in Seoul to attend the closing party for this exhibition I curated for Roland. Roland and I met in Cork, Ireland, of course, at the Guesthouse, which I wrote a lot about here. Our connection came to all the way to Korea to this exhibition, and finally made it as a form of exhibition of sound art. Perhaps, the short introduction of the exhibition might help you understanding why I started thinking about this exhibition.

I was very glad that Roland could experience all the sound artists in Korea through SAII, thanks to Ji Yeon, thanks to Young's help for Roland, great coordinating by Jina, thanks to our sponsors, Apre-midi and MV Augusta. Above all, thanks to Katrin and Roland who travelled from St. Petersburg to Seoul by train most of the time. We look forward to listening to the new sound soon again!

Grand Finale

2010-09-09T16:32:00.000+01:00

After three weeks of intensive program, more intensive openings were waiting for us. We had Art Gwangju/Gwangju Biennale/Sooja Kim's. We also had a ceremony for our course completion.
Perhaps, Gwangju Biennale is detail-written on ArtForum diary. We were even mentioned as "curators-in-waiting" which is, I think, an interesting expression to address 22 curators from the course.
I am also very curious about our futures. Of course, we all have different futures waiting for us, but it will be quite exciting to see how these go. 'Future' will be such an interesting history for all of us.

the 2nd Gwangju Biennale International Curator Course Day21

2010-09-01T18:26:00.001+01:00

MARIEKE VAN HAL from the Biennial Foundation gave us a lecture with the title of 'To Biennial Not To Biennial?' There are so many 'biennales' in the world. We also include triennale, documenta, manifesta, etc. Her lecture was more like a thesis presentation rather than a form of lecture. It was more in an academic way, which reminded me of nostalgia about my school time. I really miss those days now. It is funny that when you are actually a student, you don't really like that situation, however, once you are out of there, you really want to go back to those times! Now, I miss everything about my school days, even those presentations with long papers we had to write!
Biennale, this is a topic which I should write my thesis on, I think, not on a blog like such a short time writing, but I can say I am a biennale optimist, too. However, what do I want from these many biennales from? I still question to myself.

the 2nd Gwangju Biennale International Curator Course Day20

2010-09-01T17:35:00.000+01:00

AI WEIWEI. The power of this name has been very strong recently not only in art world, but also the world itself. I am sure you already know about his projects or you can check his works online easily. However, talking about the next Gwangju Design Biennale is something different.
     When we got this presentation from Brendan McGetrick about the raw brainstorms from the team, the first thing hit my mind was plastic surgery. Of course, plastic surgery is the biggest design business in the world. If you think about the case of Korea in terms of plastic surgery, I can say Korea is the 'kingdom' among all the plastic surgery ever.
     I want to say this is more complicated than you think, because of many reasons; not just about social beauty, but this is very complex. Since we have this thing called 'Gwansang' in Korean, 'Myansheng' in Chinese, we talk about our fate with facial characters. We have fortune tellers in Korea, then they will tell you what your face tells you. However, this goes more complex than anything else. Because if you want to get a job, your employer will prefer someone who has the face of 'good' employee who can be told with a certain facial character. According to interesting rumors, a lot of companies actually hire fortune tellers to pick 'a good face' for their companies.
     Another thing is about recent phenomenon of Korean face. I saw the advertisement in Taipei says that they can change clients' face to Korean style. After successful Korean soap operas in Taiwan, people would like to get a plastic surgery to look more like 'Korean style'. This is based on the same theory as the hollywood stars' plastic surgery or barbie girls' style. However, it is a bit different situation in Asia now. Since we all prefer to have the "Hong Kong Style" when the film industry was conquered by Hong Kong in Korea, we are now moving to 'Hallyu' which is more about Korean film, Korean drama, etc. This makes so much effect on the Asian society even on the plastic surgery case.
     We can also talk about 'whitening'. You will find so much cosmetics about whitening in Asian countries, especially in Japan, of course in Korea. You will find diamond peeling which is about getting 'baby skin' after this surgery. There are so many things.
     Why do people want to have different design on their faces? This can be the biggest question towards the Gwangju Design Biennale, don't you think? Especially, if you want to talk about design in our lives in everyday, ordinary life?

the 2nd Gwangju Biennale International Curator Course Day15-19

2010-08-30T11:29:00.000+01:00

THINGS ARE not chronological. One of them is my mind, my writing, too. However, it seems that my blog readers missed my writing about the course last week, since I didn't write anything for a while.
     To summarize what we experience last week, perhaps, I must mention something chronological; a lecture by Dan Cameron about Taipei Biennale on Monday, a lecture by Hyo Sang Seung about his architectural projects on Tuesday, Group Study 2 in the afternnoon of Tuesday, inspiring questions and answers by Dan on Wednesday, Group Study 3 on Thursday, and a lecture by Carol Yinghua Lu on Friday.
     Through last week, my mind had suffered because I got very confused about my identity as a curator/performer/artist/writer/ or hobbist (I made this up, because I have a lot of hobbies). Perhaps, this is why I couldn't really write about the course or mentioning everyday's disussion on what we did, what we talked about, what we developed, because I didn't agree that I grow up anything out of this, or think properly to write something here, or even deteriorated, perhaps.
     We have discussed a lot in terms of how we define ourselves. One of the topic which comes up to me was this blog. Do I consider this as a critical writing? 100% NO. The reason why I started this writing was because I didn't know how to explain what I do or who I am to other people. This 'other people' can be anyone who might be interested in art or any of my friends, or anyone who is bored and accidentally ends up here, or future curators who I think it is important to know what is actually going on in reality rather than dreaming about 'becoming' a curator.
     Perhaps, this sounds quite arrogant, but I didn't want to create such an aura for future curators who consider the activity or action 'curating' as a difficult job. I think creating anything, artwork, exhibition, music, or any kind comes from just a simple idea or interest which everyone has anyway, but cannot be bothered to proceed more towards realization.
     Idea is one thing, but realization is another story. Personally, I believe that anyone who has a good idea and leadership becomes easily 'curator'. Ha, is this it? Curator doesn't necessarily mean a good curator. A good curator doesn't necessarily mean a successful curator. A successful curator necessarily mean a good curator.
     As I mentioned at the very first writing on this blog, I had no other word than "curator" to describe what I do. These days, can I be an artist because I started cooking, performing and filming? Or, again, is this word, "artist" the only word I can describe myself again?
     Before I started coming into the art scene, I thought art is the freest thing, so it wouldn't matter what I am, what to name myself, whatever I am called. Well, this was such a misunderstanding about art scene, perhaps. People who isolate their minds with the idea of categorizing and separating, this is what we are. Perhaps as a human being, is it impossible to avoid to think any other way?
     I try to introduce the most similar stories to local people when I travel in other countries. I also try to find out how different we are because we are from different backgrounds, not just because we are from different countries, but because we are from different families, different schools, etc. When I write creative writings, it is not poetry exactly, but it is not a novel, either. Am I a poet or novelist?
     As I incidate on this blog, I am just one of those who like art, something artistic. Once you name it, it becomes power. Perhaps, we are not satisfied with our own names, but want to be called with more names to be meaningful existance. Not to be forgotten.

Flower

by Chun-Su Kim(1922-2004)

Until I spoke his name,

he had been

no more than a mere gesture.

When I spoke his name,

he came to me

and became a flower.

Now speak my name,

one fitting this colour and odour of mine,

as I spoke his name,

so that I may go to him

and become his flower.

We all wish

to become something.

You to me and I to you

wish to become an unforgettable gaze.

the 2nd Gwangju Biennale International Curator Course Day13-14

2010-08-23T16:47:00.000+01:00

Our day off on weekend.
I had a great weekend clearing my mind with all the Korean TV soap operas and many comedy shows.
I just realized that how much I was missing out this after 'quitting TV' since 2000.
Perhaps, I might need to get back a little bit and write some screenplay again.
And I had a great dinner, which was inspired by a TV show just simply they were having this Koreanized Chinese dish on TV, I wanted to have the same one. So I did.
Life is not so complicating sometimes, especially when I simply do what I simply want to do.

the 2nd Gwangju Biennale International Curator Course Day12

2010-08-23T16:34:00.000+01:00

Visiting Program-Gwangju
We had an excursion to Gasa Literature Museum, Sikyeongjeong, Soswaewon, and Songgwangsa. I am not so sure how much other people understood in terms of Korean traditional culture out of this quick trip, but at least I hope they had a good time out of classroom on Friday. However, understanding any traditional culture in a wrong way can be very dangerous as well. I decided to think this way after some people started talking about Korean culture in a complete wrong way with misunderstading and misinterpretation.
I mentioned before on this blog that I still want to be a poet. I think the role of poet in Korean society is quite unique than anywhere else. Since we had such a strong tradition in Josun Dynasty that creating a poetry to be a public official, writing a poetry is something about thinking about our people, society, and nation as well as our nature.

     Gasa literature is considered as the process from poetry towards prose in the late 15th or 16th century. At first it must have been sung as a song, but it must have become longer later on, and became more like a form of essay rather than a poetry to sing.
     After the Great King Sejong made Korean Hangul system to write Korean language, we think a lot of changes might happened right after 1446, but according to what I learned from school, it's not like what we imagine. Chinese character is a part of our identity after we actively started using from 6th or 7th century. Therefore, even though Hangul is a great system, we couldn't get rid of part of our identity, for sure. Especially when the intellectuals of Josun Dynasty were all about writing Chinese poetry rather than using a new Hangul system then. Perhaps, it was more about power game than just a writing system, of course.
     The short film we watched was simply 'too much information' in such a short film, but not even in the best quality, either. Perhaps, they need better budget or contents for this kind of film.

Sikyeongjeong is a pavillion, it means even a shadow rests at this pavillion. Dan was quite impressed by this pavillion and thinking about building one for his backyard in New Orleans, which I think a great idea, since I have planned the same thing for my graduate study plan.
Actually I prefer to build Soswaewon somewhere, though. Soswaewon is more like a vacation home, but with a sad backgroud story behind after the massacre of scholars in 1519.

On the way to Soswaewon, we saw a lot of bamboo trees. Of course, bamboo trees mean the characteristics of scholars who are supposed to be straight like these tree without any dishonesty or twisting around.

Now, we move on to Buddhism after Confucianism. We arrived in Songgwangsa. I remember this view from the mountain several years ago when I went there with the group of Korean studies from Ewha.

Perhaps, I miss all the trips we made then. I liked that ourselves had to prepare for a short presentation for each spot where we go. There were always a lot of pop quizzes from Professor Choi.

The treasure museum of Songgwangsa has a manuscript from Kubilai which was valued by a Tibetian monk recently after being in the storage without any light for a long time. I guess I have to postpone to write more about the history of Mongolia and Korea to some time later, since it is also related to Japan.

the 2nd Gwangju Biennale International Curator Course Day11

2010-08-19T16:57:00.000+01:00

Day of Dan, we had a lecture from Dan about his Prospect New Orleans. I have been getting all the newsletters from PNO since long ago, I knew a lot about what he explained today except some "behind-stories".

the 2nd Gwangju Biennale International Curator Course Day10

2010-08-19T16:39:00.000+01:00

Yongwoo Lee, CEO of Gwangju Biennale Foundation gave us a lecture at 9am. It was early after a late night the day before. However, it was new to me to listen to him explain how the Gwangju Biennale started. In 1994, when I was a middle school student, Gwangju Biennale just started their mission on this biennial art exhibition in a city of May 18. I didn't even know about Gwangju Biennale then, even though I knew about Pusan International Film Festival which I went to see a movie with my classmate in 1995 after lying to my mom saying that I am going to a library from early in the morning. Well, I wanted to study film then, I failed to go to the film theory major at my school, but art theory a year after I mananged to fail the film theory, therefore, it is not so surprising that I knew about PIFF but no GB then.
     I also have some strong guilty-feeling that I didn't pay attention to people in the southwest, especially about Gwangju. Perhaps any Korean who is from other province might have this kind of guilty-feeling whenever we talk about Gwangju.
     I asked a question to Yongwoo about healing the trauma of Gwangju citizen after the Biennale if they have been cured as he planned through this art and culture city theme which is rooted in the traditional characteristics of Gwangju rather than the May 18. He answered with all the statistics (compared to Venice), which he thinks quite positive, I reckon.
     Now, I am in this 'art scene' (kind of), and have been to Busan Biennale rather than PIFF recently. Life changes so fast without really realizing what is happening to me everyday.
     We finally started our group study. I am in the group 1 with Leanne, Kathleen, and Cole. We have a topic which is from our discussion based on thrown issues for us. The topic for our group is 'Art in the public sphere; the everyday sublime' oh well.... Yes, it is very wide. We have taked a lot until time was up, but still more to discuss and to develop for our presentation. We still have a couple of more chances to discuss about what we have talked before, but now my mind is full of ideas and thoughts.

the 2nd Gwangju Biennale International Curator Course Day9

2010-08-17T15:16:00.000+01:00

Continued....

We started at this point that we had to see how the artwork was delivered. As Massimiliano mentioned yesterday, it was a lot of problem-solving.

More gallery tour continued.

We went to the city museum and the folk museum to see two other Biennale venue. After this gallery tour, he gave us some presentation about his previous work as we did.

I liked his 'the wrong gallery' most. It was funny and nice. This kind of curating is something creative and inspiring to me.

And all I can think of right now after all that are 'shitty painting', 'provocative', 'site-specific'. We need better communication, perhaps. Or we just need more time next time.

the 2nd Gwangju Biennale International Curator Course Day8

2010-08-17T15:05:00.000+01:00

Back to Monday. Mami Kataoka, the curator of Mori Art Museum came to give us a lecture. I have been to Mori Art Museum last year before I flew to Frankfurt when I stayed in Tokyo for three days. And I saw the exhibition of Ai Weiwei at that time which Mami talked about today.
We also listened her about the current exhibition, by three artists; Yoshioka Tokujin, Taro Shinoda, and Kuribayashi Takashi. I am quite familiar with these artists and their style, since I am very interested in Japanese culture, Shintoism, as well as their perspectives towards art, culture, etc.
Perhaps, this is very different to 'Western' people who have nothing to do with Asian minds, however, the show itself might be interpreted in a neutral way if you don't focus on 'Nature' too much.

Even though I want to go back, I came too far into art, I can't really go back, I know too much about art, I know nothing about art, that's how I feel after the gallery tour by Massimiliano Gioni.

Massimiliano went through the exhibition spaces for the Biennale, but without artwork. Well, there were some artwork, but not all since they are being installed at the moment. It was quite painful since the wet paint from the walls really hurt my eyes, nose, and throat. This gallery tour continued on Day 9 as well.

the 2nd Gwangju Biennale International Curator Course Day7

2010-08-16T18:16:00.000+01:00

Happy Independence Day, Hurray! Hurray! Hurray!

     I enjoyed Sunday very well just sitting in my room and enjoyed free time. Even though I tried not to do too much of anything since it was Sunday and Holiday, I wanted to go out to see a movie at least. Because I wanted to watch so much for a while and even asked Scott not to talk about because it will ruin my cinema experience, I finally went to see it with Jesi and Arzu.
     I didn't know it was about dream. I love dreaming. Usually when I go to sleep I plan what to dream, if I succeed, I am happy about it, if not, still not too bad, anyway, I love dream.
     Dreaming, reality, unconciousness, these are the things I have been thinking about yesterday. I am still in the process of these thoughts.

the 2nd Gwangju Biennale International Curator Course Day6

2010-08-14T16:20:00.000+01:00

TIME OFF;It means I can explore Gwangju City, where I have never been before in my life this long. I am from the south east part of Korea, therefore, I have been to this south west part of Korea when I came with the group of Korean Studies to visit the important heritage sites.
Perhaps I am one of the young generation who doesn't think about the May of Gwangju in my life, not just because I am from the east part, but also because I am just too 88 generation who is too busy to think about the score of TOEIC or job hunting after the graduation, perhaps, maybe......

Anyways, since Arzu called me last night to join me, finally I and Arzu went to the May 18 Monumental Park, but always unexpected situation happens to me, just like some TV sit-com. I bumped into a group of this costume play people in the park, instead of heros from the deomocratic movement.

I found this very ironic. If you think about how many people died in this democratic movement and the contemporary use of this park by this costume play group. This was almost some sort of surplus of spectacle by this huge statue to remember the historical movement and the other kind of spectacle from young high school (even middle school) students' costume play to mimic a cartoon character instead of any hero from the democratic movement.

When we enter the memorial foundation building, we couldn't even find any exhibition gallery because they are closed now, but is used as an archive. However, a nice janitor gave us a booklet about the May 18, one in Korean for me, the other in English for Arzu.

So, we just had to be satisfied with little miniature of the May 18 in the lobby of the building. Then, we kept walking towards the Mugak Temple passing by all these costume play group.

Mugak Temple was the best choice. I feel very relaxed in a temple. People seem nice and kind in a temple, just like any other religious place. We went to the Lotus Gallery which had contemporary oriental paintings by an artist from Gwangju. We spent some time in the book cafe with a nice buddhist essay book.

I actually liked all the small curvy ways inside of the park to get to the Mugak Temple. There were many trees, interesting flowers, especially fantastic bamboo trees.

A lot of people go to bathe with forest these days. Bathing in the forest? No, just breathing and walking in the forest is forest-bathing. This is quite relaxing process of walking and enjoying the nature. I find it very nice for my mental health. However, I also have to think about another health as well, so we went to the duck soup restaurant on the street which was basically only full of duck food.

It looked very similar to a chicken, but it tastes a bit different, I think. Many people told me that I should find a place for any duck meat, soup, roasted, or any kind of cooking. I think this duck soup was 7 out of 10, I think it has a strong flavour some people would find it very difficult to eat because of the Korean water parsley. If you like this, it should be a fantastic meal. I really enjoy the frangrance from it. If you don't like this fragrance like my mom, it could be quite difficult to eat. Or if you are a vegetarian.

Perhaps, tomorrow can be my day off, or I might have another story to write about even Sunday, since tomorrow is Korean Independence Day! Hurray! Hurray! Hurray!