GHOSTS, SPIES, and GRANDMOTHERS
Artistic Director: Park Chan-kyong
Duration: Sep., 2 – Nov., 23, 2014
Venues: SeMA (Seoul Museum of Art), KOFA (Korean Film Archive)
SeMA Biennale Mediacity Seoul 2014 is held at the Seoul Museum of Art and Korean Film Archive. Celebrating its 8th anniversary this year, the main theme of Mediacity Seoul 2014, different from its previous themes, is ‘Asia.’ The continent of Asia has shared experiences of intense colonization, the Cold War, rapid economic growth and social change in a short period of time, but rarely were there any exhibitions that took this theme as their main subject. Hence, through the keywords of ‘Ghosts, Spies, and Grandmothers,’ this exhibition will look back on contemporary Asia. Ghosts stand for the forgotten history and traditions of Asia, spies symbolize the memories of the Cold War, and the grandmothers are metaphors of ‘women and time.’ The exhibited works, however, can transcend such themes or make a detour around them to present themselves in the state of ample possibility vis-àvis the viewers. The three keywords are thus three passages entering into the exhibition. - Park Chan-kyong (Artistic Director of the Mediacity Seoul 2014)
FAST BREAK
Curatorial Advisor: Park Chan-Kyong
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Duration: Apr., 13 - Jun., 30, 2007
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Venue: PKM Gallery Beijing, China
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Fast Break, originally a term referring to a strategic swift attack in aim of scoring a point before the opponent is able to get in a defensive position in sports such as basketball or volleyball; is applied here to represent a moment to generate a fresh tone, an opportunity for recharge, and to create an 'artistic' team work. In broader terms, it is also a metaphor for experiencing the momentum of Seoul- from everyday amusement from incessant change, daily pattern of missing proper timing due to hesitation, routinized shock, and frequent lapse of memory and instantaneous and unpredictable energy of the present. The fourteen young artists exhibiting in the show have lived through the time of high-speed growth and have experienced the trauma of cold war. They are now confronting the rapidly expanding 'place' of freedom and complexities of the value system. The artists vividly draw the topography of this transitional period with their discerning language and diverse themes.
PUBLIC MOMENT
AFI Project Director: Park Chan-Kyong
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Duration: Sep., 5 - Sep., 30, 2006
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Venues: Alternative Space Loop, Ssamzie Space, Gallery Ccot, Gallery Soop
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Subject of AFI(Artist Forum International) is "Public Moment." This year's event comprised of exhibition, talk/discussion, presentations, site-specific projects, etc. Core events were held in September, 2006.
Events:
Exhibition: Public Moment
Project 1: Collective Expectations, Collective Potentials: Justice
Project 2: Public Art as Process
Workshop 1: New Ways of Engaging Asia: Artists' Mobility and Artist Residencies
Workshop 2: Approach to Alternative Art Market
SEQUENCE OF TENSE: MESSAGE FROM LEBANON AND PALESTINE
Project Director: Park Chan-Kyong, Beck Jee-sook
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Duration: Dec., 16, 2005 - Jan., 11, 2006
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Venues: Alternative Space Pool, Insa Art Space of Arts Council Korea
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Artists, curators and critics from Serbia-Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia, Lebanon and Palestine were invited for the exhibition Tense Agreement: Messages from Lebanon and Palestine. The goal was to discuss and seek the ways in which to ways, by holding symposiums, workshops and film screenings, to overcome severed memories and the communication gap between different periods that are caused by such severance of memories.
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Events:
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Exhibition: Dec., 16, 2005 - Jan., 11, 2006, Alternative Space Pool
Screening: 16 Dec 2005 - 8 Jan 2006, Insa Art Space
Workshop: 12 Dec 2005 - 15 Dec 2005, Insa Art Space
WHO CARES THE LOCAL REALITIES?
Curator: Park Chan-kyong, Beck Jee-sook
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Duration: Dec., 4, 2004-Feb., 3. 2005
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Venues: Marronnier Art Center, Insa Art Apace, KCAF
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Symposium "WHO CARES THE LOCAL REALITIES?"
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Related Exhibition: "A NEW PAST"
Door to Door 2: Who cares the local realities? is an international exchange symposium, which introduced works of young artists, curators and critics from Serbia-Montenegro, Croatia and Slovenia, the three countries part of the former Yugoslavia. New Past (December 4, 2004 - February 3, 2005) was an international exchange exhibition planned in conjunction with the symposium, which probed into an understanding of the Other with political, cultural, historical and geographical differences, and looked back, self-reflexively, on the recent past of 20th century Korea. The exhibition New Past continued and expanded the questions and discourses arising from City’s Memories, History of Spaces, an international alternative space symposium planned by Insa Art Space in 2002.
SEONGNAM PROJECT
Duration: Oct., 16 - Nov., 4, 1998
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Venues: Seoul Museum of Art, Seongnam City Hall Lobby
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Exhibitions:
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Seongnam Modernism (as part of group exhibition 1998 City and Image: Food, Clothing, Shelter, Seoul Museum of Art, Oct.,16-Nov., 4, 1998)
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Seongnam and Environmental Art (Seongnam City Hall Lobby, Oct., 19-25, 1998)
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The Meaning of Space, Moran Market (Seongnam City Hall lobby, Oct., 13-17, 1999)
Participating Artists: Kim Tae-heon, Kim Hong-bin, Mah In-hwang, Park Yong-seok, Park Chan-kyong, Park Hye-yeon, Son Hye-min, Yoo Ju-ho, Im Heung-soon, Cho Ji-eun
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Seongnam Project was self-claimed as a “transformative group,” which conducted research of Korean cities, such as Seongnam, and produced a total of three bodies of work that respond to highly versatile conditions and situations. For the first two exhibitions in particular, Seongnam Modernism and Seongnam and Environmental Art, Seongnam Project members conducted concrete and detailed research with “sociological attitude” around the consequences of state-run urban developments and the “Law of Decorative Sculptures for Buildings,” through which the national government has required large-scale building owners to erect in or near the building complex for the beautification of public space. Furthermore, Seongnam Project discovered the aesthetics of “resident art,” which concerns the distinctive system of survival for those evicted from a slum area in Seoul to collectively settle in Seongnam, a low-income satellite city off the capital. The artists’ attention to “resident art” to a certain extent comments on the government’s top-down urban development policy. On one instance, Seongnam Project’s research concerned the type of organically formed network of production, distribution and division of labor among the migrant residents in Moran Market, a traditional market unique to Seongnam. The work of Seongnam Project involved a diverse range of mediums, such as research, documentary photography, sculpture, installation, video, and print media, opening up a new chapter in conceptually driven art practice.