The Film 2012 - part 1 Switching on the Darkness
- part 2 Another Word
Period : 2012. 9. 25 ~ 2013. 1. 20
- part1 : 2012. 9. 25. 화 - 2013. 11. 25. 일
- part2 : 2012. 12. 4. 화 - 2013. 1. 20. 일
projectroom(B1)
Exhibition Purpose
In the purview of various issues on contemporary art and films, the exhibition on view intends to focus on the meaning and value of film, and especially the material of film. Among the many words to describe movies, the term ‘film’ is deeply correlated to the materialistic property of films and its aesthetic significance. Film is an art of material, an art of consciousness and an art of time. This is the very reason that the show has been arranged around the material properties of film stock, and the observation of its bridging with the field ofcontemporary art.
The first part, ‘Switching on the Darkness’ metaphorically expresses the moment when the era of movies started. The title means rather than switching on light, by switching on the darkness, one can see new light. The exhibition intends to observe the relationship between art and film since its material inception while presenting various films and installations that are created based upon the artists’ diverse thoughts and attitudes towards film. All ten artists and thirteen artworks are exhibited.
In the title of the second part of the exhibition, ‘Another Word’, the word ‘another’ means ‘different’, but it also means ‘something in addition’or‘something similar’. Considering film as something similar to art, this show features several works of artists and film directors in order to observe what takes place at the cross-point of film and art, or film and media-art from the present viewpoint.
About the Exhibition
Approaching film through its material medium
There are a few words indicative of the genre; cinema, movie and film. Out of them, the word ‘film’ has been selected for the purpose of approaching and observing films from a bigger perspective. The term ‘film’ is correlated to the materialistic property of films and its aesthetic significance. The start of art, which we call cinematography, originated from film. Each image imprinted on each frame of film is a still-image, and the images connected and moving with the passage of time are perceived as the film that we know. It is an art that makes us concentrate on all of our senses as 24 frames repeatedly turn the light on and off every second and sounds play on top.
Film is the most representational form of art that most clearly shows that the way of existence is conditional upon time. Films that had high technological dependency and yielded high economic value kept on the renewal of its standard in tandem with the development of industry and technology. Now, it has reached a point where the existence of film, the principle medium of the genre, is disappearing from the scene - to the extent that the regressive yearning for the medium, and its intrinsic value and virtue is evoked. Under such context, part one, “Switching on the Darkness” is on view, and we explore the relationship of film and art of the past and present.
The pleasure of discovering new meanings between film and art
This exhibition is part of the effortful attempts of the museum accepting various contemporary cultural fields whilst seeking for the true nature of our culture. As a starting point, we have chosen to deal with films.
Until today, on inspecting the relation of art, film and especially media-art, one has had to usually approach it from a biased receptive standpoint or a completely differentiating viewpoint. Due to the fact that the defining boundaries between things are impossibly absorbed within one another, perhaps it can fixate into a new form of art. Technology always seems to be ahead of human beings; it may be that film art’s various categories may become things of the past even before they can be distinguished from one another. In this way, the second part of the exhibition explores the works of artists who alternate between the field of art and film without distinguishing between the two genres. On the strength of the material-hood of the projection room, we hope that viewers will find a certain joy in finding new meanings stemming from in between art and film.
About the Artists
Korea’s avant-garde film
Kim Gu-Lim began from the creating of semi-abstraction painting in the style of Informel at the end of the 1950s. Then, he was involved in avant-garde art much talked about during the 1960s and 1970s and Conceptual Art of the 1970s and 1980s. Recently he creates works based on the philosophy of yin and yang - he is an artist who endlessly goes through new experiments and challenges. The flat surface, the object, ceramics, lithography, photography and video are all various mediums he experimented with. He jumped into dance, music and performance art to reveal what he can do to put forth his ideas about contemporary art.
From time to space, the new meaning of film
Kim Bum-Su completed a Master’s degree at the School of Visual Arts, New York after he graduated from the department of sculpture at Hong-ik University in Seoul. He had about ten solo exhibitions and his works were featured in group shows more than forty times. He also participated in the artist residence program at home and abroad like National Art Studio of Korea and Taipei Artist Village. He was inspired by film stock that he accidentally encountered during his overseas study: based on the material of film stock, his work expresses the recorded past reverting to the present through the duality of images emitted by light.
Paying homage to the disappearing film through Stan Brackage
Sean Kim majored in Fine Art focusing on painting at School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and further majored in experimental animation under the supervision of Jules Engel (1909-2003), the master artist in the area of experimental animation at California Institute of the Arts. He currently works in Los Angeles and New York, and presents experimental videos based on the aesthetics of animation and a series of Moving Painting. In addition, he is engaged in Live Painting and media performance which delivers audience-friendly communication on site. He also cooperates with artists of different genres such as performance, sound art, music, dancing, from which he has produced a great deal of multi-art projects.
Subverting thought on filmic time and space
Noh Jae-Woon, painting major at Hong-ik University in Seoul, is well-known as an Internet artist for various projects like vimalaki.net, Aegipeak project, Bite the Bullet!, God4saken and etc. His web-based activities are also introduced to the audience in the usual exhibition space. Presenting works on and off the Internet, his works generate varied interpretation and experience from the viewers. He had his solo exhibitions at Insa Art Space, Art Space Pool and Gallery Plant, and his works were included in many special exhibitions organised in Plateau, New Museum and Gwangju Biennale. He was one of the three artists who received the Hermes Art Prize in 2009, and is currently the representative of C12 Pictures.
Peering in, the stealthy gaze
Choi Mun-Sun and Kim Min-Sun, husband and wife who are of an age, both born in 1972, and graduated Kunstakademie Dusseldorf in 2004 and 2003 respectively, founded Mioon in 2001 while working together with media-art. Mioon is concerned about society, cities and urban dwellers. By uncovering various images of crowd living in the milieu of the media, the artists intend to self-introspect the phenomena and habit of the modern society and especially the Korean society. They mainly focus on the individual whose value is buried under collectivity.
Experimenting nostalgia for medium through the recollection of film
Park Kyong-Joo graduated from Hong-ik University in Seoul majoring in print-making. He received a Master’s degree from Hochschule fuer Bildende Kuenste Braunschweig in Germany in the field of film and photography. Keen on the topic of migration from the time of his stay in Germany, he created many works related to the theme such as Migrated Worker, Berlin (photograph, 1999), Nurse Dispatched to Germany (photograph, 2000), Migrated Worker, Seoul (photograph, 2001), What is Life?: Migrated Worker’s Music Project (project album, 2002, sponsored by ARKO, Ssamji Space and Foreign Migrant Workers’ Centre of Seoul), Yeosu: Beginning, Middle and End (experimental play, 2010) and so on. As the founder of Salad TV, the Internet independent multicultural broadcasting company (www.saladtv.kr), he has been working as a journalist specialised in the issues of migration since 2005. In 2009, Salad, the multicultural performance group focusing on the same issue was initiated by him.
Meaning of the gaze captured in film
Joo-Yeon Park graduated from Goldsmiths College of London in 1996 and also from St. Martins College of the University of the Arts London in 2000. Working and living in Korea and UK, she had solo shows eight times starting from 2002 and her works were presented at the Gwangju Biennale, Platform Seoul, The 12 Korean Contemporary Artists (at LACMA in 2009) and so on. Her travel-log Passer-by was published as the first artist’s book, a special project conceived by BOL (seasonal magazine published by ARKO), and in conjunction with the publication Summer Light, black-and-white photographs were shown at Insa Art Space. She is the recipient of the Doosan Yonkang Art Award of 2011.
Recording the memory
Suk Sung-Suk majored in Visual Communication (Images & Media Art) at Universität der Künste Berlin in 2002 after graduating from the department of art at Hong-ik University in Seoul in 1995. Working as a media and sound artist, he is the founder and director of the underground online art channel for artists who are engaged in producing media-related experimental works. He is currently a professor at the department of photography and images of Kyungil University of Korea. The 2011 edition of the Seoul International New Media Festival Award was given to him. Casting a critical perspective of the media environment, his works suggest a possibility for a new communicative environment.
Film, space and illusion created by light
Youngho Leecompleted his Master’s Degree at Kunsthochschule für Bildende Künst in Frankfurt in 2009, studying in Simon Starling’s class. Living in Seoul and Berlin, he had four solo exhibitions after the first solo show of 2005 in Germany and was involved in numerous group shows and film screening festivals. The motif of his works is unearthed from visual devices, film and backgrounds of the social, historical episodes, which he reassembles or reconstructs through sampling or remixing, into images together with installations in the viewing space. He is now contemplating to create a special fantasy-theatre which can be offered as his own unique venue for the expansion of the perception of temporal and spatial experience, that is familiar yet foreign.
Distortion of documented memory
Jangwook Lee majored film-making at the Art Institute of Chicago after studying at the department of mass communications at Sogang University in Seoul. He has been making personal documentary films focusing on the medium of film stock. In 2004, he founded Space Cell, a hand-made film laboratory in an attempt to ferment a new culture that seeks questions and explorations of the medium of film stock. Additionally, he conceived the idea of the experimental film screening society and the laboratorial programme on the experimental film festival, which is intended to handle distribution and screening simultaneously - creating new cultural atmosphere. His major works are screened at various film festivals. He is expanding his own interest by exploring multi-projection screening at an altered cinema space. He continues to work in the individual everyday life and memory, and its private process of operation.
Epic of the expanded time
Kim Young-Namhas an unusual career as film director; he has a MA in Computer Science at Ajou University of Korea. His commitment to becoming film director started in earnest when he entered the Korean National University of Arts to study at the School of Film, TV & Multimedia. He came to the spotlight at the Canne International Film Festival for his graduation work of 2011, Because I Fly Away And You Are Enchanted. A Cup of Hot Coffee of My Own was awarded top Seonje Prize for short film at the Busan International Film Festival in 2005. His main debut film titled Don’t Look Back was co-produced with Emotion Pictures and NHK of Japan, which was featured as the finale during the Jeonju International Film Festival in May 2011 and was recently submitted to the competition section of Festival del Film Locarno in Switzerland. He is currently participating in the artist’s residence programme of Gyeonggi Creation Centre while preparing for his solo exhibition at Gallery 175.
Documentary: matter of record, at the converging point of place, memory and history
Kelvin Kyung-Kun Park received a MA in Film & Video at the graduate school of the California Institute of the Arts after completing a BA in Design & Media Art at the University of California, USA. He has been participating in numerous group shows organized in New York, London, Seoul, etc. since 2002, and film festivals such as Seoul Independent Film Festival, Freewave Media Art Festival of Los Angeles and Takoma Park Film Festival. He had a solo exhibition titled Dream of Metal in 2012. Cheonggyecheon Medley, included in this exhibition stole the limelight at the Busan International Film Festival in 2010. His work was shown at various international film festivals in Thailand, Poland, Canada, America and Germany. He comments on his own work: ‘My work is about obscuring the borderline between art and film’.
The uniqueness unravelling history
After graduating from Seoul National University in Western painting, Chan-Kyong Park majored in art and photography at the California Institute of the Arts. His works, that travel back and forth between reality and fiction, imagination and fact, have been exhibited in Berlin, Paris, Europe, Japan and the US, including the Gwangju Biennale in 2002. He received the Hermes Korea Art Award in 2004, and the Golden Bear Award at the 2011 Berlin Film Festival for short films. Flying (2005) was selected for the competition section at the International Short Films Festival at Oberhausen, Germany and was screened at many other film festivals. He is known as one of the most active artists who transgresses between film and art.
The youthful perspective that deals with the present matter
At the Korean National University of the Arts, Yoon-Suk Jung studied Fine Art at the School of Visual Arts, animation at the School of Film, TV & Multimedia and is currently pursuing his Masters in Documentary in the department of Broadcasting. He had his first solo exhibition in 2009 at Kumho Art Museum, and participated in various major group exhibitions such as at Gwangju Biennale, Art Space Pool, Gyeonggido Art Museum, Seoul Museum of Art etc. His works were also screened at film festivals such as the Seoul International Experimental Film Festival, Busan International Film Festival or Jeonju International Film Festival. In 2010, he received a participation award as part of Song Eun Art Awards. Although the artist has his films screened through the distribution system, he allows any viewers to see his works by placing his works in his website or UCC, wishing for films to be a public resource that can be consumed by anyone.
- part 2 Another Word
Period : 2012. 9. 25 ~ 2013. 1. 20
- part1 : 2012. 9. 25. 화 - 2013. 11. 25. 일
- part2 : 2012. 12. 4. 화 - 2013. 1. 20. 일
projectroom(B1)
Exhibition Purpose
In the purview of various issues on contemporary art and films, the exhibition on view intends to focus on the meaning and value of film, and especially the material of film. Among the many words to describe movies, the term ‘film’ is deeply correlated to the materialistic property of films and its aesthetic significance. Film is an art of material, an art of consciousness and an art of time. This is the very reason that the show has been arranged around the material properties of film stock, and the observation of its bridging with the field ofcontemporary art.
The first part, ‘Switching on the Darkness’ metaphorically expresses the moment when the era of movies started. The title means rather than switching on light, by switching on the darkness, one can see new light. The exhibition intends to observe the relationship between art and film since its material inception while presenting various films and installations that are created based upon the artists’ diverse thoughts and attitudes towards film. All ten artists and thirteen artworks are exhibited.
In the title of the second part of the exhibition, ‘Another Word’, the word ‘another’ means ‘different’, but it also means ‘something in addition’or‘something similar’. Considering film as something similar to art, this show features several works of artists and film directors in order to observe what takes place at the cross-point of film and art, or film and media-art from the present viewpoint.
About the Exhibition
Approaching film through its material medium
There are a few words indicative of the genre; cinema, movie and film. Out of them, the word ‘film’ has been selected for the purpose of approaching and observing films from a bigger perspective. The term ‘film’ is correlated to the materialistic property of films and its aesthetic significance. The start of art, which we call cinematography, originated from film. Each image imprinted on each frame of film is a still-image, and the images connected and moving with the passage of time are perceived as the film that we know. It is an art that makes us concentrate on all of our senses as 24 frames repeatedly turn the light on and off every second and sounds play on top.
Film is the most representational form of art that most clearly shows that the way of existence is conditional upon time. Films that had high technological dependency and yielded high economic value kept on the renewal of its standard in tandem with the development of industry and technology. Now, it has reached a point where the existence of film, the principle medium of the genre, is disappearing from the scene - to the extent that the regressive yearning for the medium, and its intrinsic value and virtue is evoked. Under such context, part one, “Switching on the Darkness” is on view, and we explore the relationship of film and art of the past and present.
The pleasure of discovering new meanings between film and art
This exhibition is part of the effortful attempts of the museum accepting various contemporary cultural fields whilst seeking for the true nature of our culture. As a starting point, we have chosen to deal with films.
Until today, on inspecting the relation of art, film and especially media-art, one has had to usually approach it from a biased receptive standpoint or a completely differentiating viewpoint. Due to the fact that the defining boundaries between things are impossibly absorbed within one another, perhaps it can fixate into a new form of art. Technology always seems to be ahead of human beings; it may be that film art’s various categories may become things of the past even before they can be distinguished from one another. In this way, the second part of the exhibition explores the works of artists who alternate between the field of art and film without distinguishing between the two genres. On the strength of the material-hood of the projection room, we hope that viewers will find a certain joy in finding new meanings stemming from in between art and film.
About the Artists
Korea’s avant-garde film
Kim Gu-Lim began from the creating of semi-abstraction painting in the style of Informel at the end of the 1950s. Then, he was involved in avant-garde art much talked about during the 1960s and 1970s and Conceptual Art of the 1970s and 1980s. Recently he creates works based on the philosophy of yin and yang - he is an artist who endlessly goes through new experiments and challenges. The flat surface, the object, ceramics, lithography, photography and video are all various mediums he experimented with. He jumped into dance, music and performance art to reveal what he can do to put forth his ideas about contemporary art.
From time to space, the new meaning of film
Kim Bum-Su completed a Master’s degree at the School of Visual Arts, New York after he graduated from the department of sculpture at Hong-ik University in Seoul. He had about ten solo exhibitions and his works were featured in group shows more than forty times. He also participated in the artist residence program at home and abroad like National Art Studio of Korea and Taipei Artist Village. He was inspired by film stock that he accidentally encountered during his overseas study: based on the material of film stock, his work expresses the recorded past reverting to the present through the duality of images emitted by light.
Paying homage to the disappearing film through Stan Brackage
Sean Kim majored in Fine Art focusing on painting at School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and further majored in experimental animation under the supervision of Jules Engel (1909-2003), the master artist in the area of experimental animation at California Institute of the Arts. He currently works in Los Angeles and New York, and presents experimental videos based on the aesthetics of animation and a series of Moving Painting. In addition, he is engaged in Live Painting and media performance which delivers audience-friendly communication on site. He also cooperates with artists of different genres such as performance, sound art, music, dancing, from which he has produced a great deal of multi-art projects.
Subverting thought on filmic time and space
Noh Jae-Woon, painting major at Hong-ik University in Seoul, is well-known as an Internet artist for various projects like vimalaki.net, Aegipeak project, Bite the Bullet!, God4saken and etc. His web-based activities are also introduced to the audience in the usual exhibition space. Presenting works on and off the Internet, his works generate varied interpretation and experience from the viewers. He had his solo exhibitions at Insa Art Space, Art Space Pool and Gallery Plant, and his works were included in many special exhibitions organised in Plateau, New Museum and Gwangju Biennale. He was one of the three artists who received the Hermes Art Prize in 2009, and is currently the representative of C12 Pictures.
Peering in, the stealthy gaze
Choi Mun-Sun and Kim Min-Sun, husband and wife who are of an age, both born in 1972, and graduated Kunstakademie Dusseldorf in 2004 and 2003 respectively, founded Mioon in 2001 while working together with media-art. Mioon is concerned about society, cities and urban dwellers. By uncovering various images of crowd living in the milieu of the media, the artists intend to self-introspect the phenomena and habit of the modern society and especially the Korean society. They mainly focus on the individual whose value is buried under collectivity.
Experimenting nostalgia for medium through the recollection of film
Park Kyong-Joo graduated from Hong-ik University in Seoul majoring in print-making. He received a Master’s degree from Hochschule fuer Bildende Kuenste Braunschweig in Germany in the field of film and photography. Keen on the topic of migration from the time of his stay in Germany, he created many works related to the theme such as Migrated Worker, Berlin (photograph, 1999), Nurse Dispatched to Germany (photograph, 2000), Migrated Worker, Seoul (photograph, 2001), What is Life?: Migrated Worker’s Music Project (project album, 2002, sponsored by ARKO, Ssamji Space and Foreign Migrant Workers’ Centre of Seoul), Yeosu: Beginning, Middle and End (experimental play, 2010) and so on. As the founder of Salad TV, the Internet independent multicultural broadcasting company (www.saladtv.kr), he has been working as a journalist specialised in the issues of migration since 2005. In 2009, Salad, the multicultural performance group focusing on the same issue was initiated by him.
Meaning of the gaze captured in film
Joo-Yeon Park graduated from Goldsmiths College of London in 1996 and also from St. Martins College of the University of the Arts London in 2000. Working and living in Korea and UK, she had solo shows eight times starting from 2002 and her works were presented at the Gwangju Biennale, Platform Seoul, The 12 Korean Contemporary Artists (at LACMA in 2009) and so on. Her travel-log Passer-by was published as the first artist’s book, a special project conceived by BOL (seasonal magazine published by ARKO), and in conjunction with the publication Summer Light, black-and-white photographs were shown at Insa Art Space. She is the recipient of the Doosan Yonkang Art Award of 2011.
Recording the memory
Suk Sung-Suk majored in Visual Communication (Images & Media Art) at Universität der Künste Berlin in 2002 after graduating from the department of art at Hong-ik University in Seoul in 1995. Working as a media and sound artist, he is the founder and director of the underground online art channel for artists who are engaged in producing media-related experimental works. He is currently a professor at the department of photography and images of Kyungil University of Korea. The 2011 edition of the Seoul International New Media Festival Award was given to him. Casting a critical perspective of the media environment, his works suggest a possibility for a new communicative environment.
Film, space and illusion created by light
Youngho Leecompleted his Master’s Degree at Kunsthochschule für Bildende Künst in Frankfurt in 2009, studying in Simon Starling’s class. Living in Seoul and Berlin, he had four solo exhibitions after the first solo show of 2005 in Germany and was involved in numerous group shows and film screening festivals. The motif of his works is unearthed from visual devices, film and backgrounds of the social, historical episodes, which he reassembles or reconstructs through sampling or remixing, into images together with installations in the viewing space. He is now contemplating to create a special fantasy-theatre which can be offered as his own unique venue for the expansion of the perception of temporal and spatial experience, that is familiar yet foreign.
Distortion of documented memory
Jangwook Lee majored film-making at the Art Institute of Chicago after studying at the department of mass communications at Sogang University in Seoul. He has been making personal documentary films focusing on the medium of film stock. In 2004, he founded Space Cell, a hand-made film laboratory in an attempt to ferment a new culture that seeks questions and explorations of the medium of film stock. Additionally, he conceived the idea of the experimental film screening society and the laboratorial programme on the experimental film festival, which is intended to handle distribution and screening simultaneously - creating new cultural atmosphere. His major works are screened at various film festivals. He is expanding his own interest by exploring multi-projection screening at an altered cinema space. He continues to work in the individual everyday life and memory, and its private process of operation.
Epic of the expanded time
Kim Young-Namhas an unusual career as film director; he has a MA in Computer Science at Ajou University of Korea. His commitment to becoming film director started in earnest when he entered the Korean National University of Arts to study at the School of Film, TV & Multimedia. He came to the spotlight at the Canne International Film Festival for his graduation work of 2011, Because I Fly Away And You Are Enchanted. A Cup of Hot Coffee of My Own was awarded top Seonje Prize for short film at the Busan International Film Festival in 2005. His main debut film titled Don’t Look Back was co-produced with Emotion Pictures and NHK of Japan, which was featured as the finale during the Jeonju International Film Festival in May 2011 and was recently submitted to the competition section of Festival del Film Locarno in Switzerland. He is currently participating in the artist’s residence programme of Gyeonggi Creation Centre while preparing for his solo exhibition at Gallery 175.
Documentary: matter of record, at the converging point of place, memory and history
Kelvin Kyung-Kun Park received a MA in Film & Video at the graduate school of the California Institute of the Arts after completing a BA in Design & Media Art at the University of California, USA. He has been participating in numerous group shows organized in New York, London, Seoul, etc. since 2002, and film festivals such as Seoul Independent Film Festival, Freewave Media Art Festival of Los Angeles and Takoma Park Film Festival. He had a solo exhibition titled Dream of Metal in 2012. Cheonggyecheon Medley, included in this exhibition stole the limelight at the Busan International Film Festival in 2010. His work was shown at various international film festivals in Thailand, Poland, Canada, America and Germany. He comments on his own work: ‘My work is about obscuring the borderline between art and film’.
The uniqueness unravelling history
After graduating from Seoul National University in Western painting, Chan-Kyong Park majored in art and photography at the California Institute of the Arts. His works, that travel back and forth between reality and fiction, imagination and fact, have been exhibited in Berlin, Paris, Europe, Japan and the US, including the Gwangju Biennale in 2002. He received the Hermes Korea Art Award in 2004, and the Golden Bear Award at the 2011 Berlin Film Festival for short films. Flying (2005) was selected for the competition section at the International Short Films Festival at Oberhausen, Germany and was screened at many other film festivals. He is known as one of the most active artists who transgresses between film and art.
The youthful perspective that deals with the present matter
At the Korean National University of the Arts, Yoon-Suk Jung studied Fine Art at the School of Visual Arts, animation at the School of Film, TV & Multimedia and is currently pursuing his Masters in Documentary in the department of Broadcasting. He had his first solo exhibition in 2009 at Kumho Art Museum, and participated in various major group exhibitions such as at Gwangju Biennale, Art Space Pool, Gyeonggido Art Museum, Seoul Museum of Art etc. His works were also screened at film festivals such as the Seoul International Experimental Film Festival, Busan International Film Festival or Jeonju International Film Festival. In 2010, he received a participation award as part of Song Eun Art Awards. Although the artist has his films screened through the distribution system, he allows any viewers to see his works by placing his works in his website or UCC, wishing for films to be a public resource that can be consumed by anyone.
